State Assembly Elections 2022
Hardik Patel, who was the former working president of Gujarat Congress and joined BJP in the month of June, is on the list of 160 BJP candidates and will be contesting from Viramgam constituency
Our Bureau
Gandhinagar/Ahmedabad
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced the first list of candidates for 160 candidates out of the 182 constituencies, which includes 14 female candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections. With the Assembly elections scheduled for December 1 and 5 in the State, the BJP leaders in a press conference held in Delhi announced this first list on the majority of the constituencies.
The list of 160 candidates includes 14 females, 13 from scheduled caste, 24 from the scheduled tribe and there are 69 candidates who have been repeated. Rivaba Jadeja, wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja has also been given a ticket by BJP from Jamnagar North Constituency.
It is the first time that three female candidates have been given tickets from Ahmedabad (Thakkarbapa Nagar, Asarwa and Naroda). Gujarat Chief Minister will be contesting from the Ghatlodia constituency and the celebrations started at his office in Ahmedabad as soon as his name was announced.
Senior BJP leaders like Vijay Rupani, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Nitin Patel and Pradipsinh Jadeja on Wednesday night stated they do not want to contest the elections and have also conveyed the same to the higher authorities in Delhi.
Hardik Patel, who was the former working president of Gujarat Congress and joined BJP in the month of June is also on the list of 160 candidates and will be contesting from Viramgam constituency. Patel spearheaded the patidar reservation agitation in Gujarat in 2015.
Other Congress leaders who joined BJP from Congress in the past like Jawahar Chavda (he was also the cabinet minister in Vijay Rupani’s ministry), Ashvin Kotwal and Pradyumansinh Jadeja have been given tickets from Manavadar, Khedbrahma and Abdasa constituencies respectively.
BJP is in power in the state from the last 27 years and is considered as BJP bastion.
Gujarat has been the BJP bastion for decades and the party is seeking its seventh term in office.
The elections will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will occur on December 8, which coincides with Himachal Pradesh’s result date.
While Congress is seeking to oust the BJP, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also making efforts to put up a strong performance in the polls.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday released a list of star campaigners for the upcoming Assembly polls in Gujarat where the party is looking to take on the ruling BJP. Big names of the party including Delhi Chief Minister and party’s supremo Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy in the Delhi government Manish Sisodia, and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann are among the star campaigners of the party. AAP MPs Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha also feature in the list of 20-star campaigners for Gujarat where the party is eying to make inroads.
Former cricketer and Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Harbhajan Singh will also campaign for the party in Gujarat as a star campaigner.
Besides, AAP’s Chief Ministerial candidate in the state Isudan Gadhvi and party’s state president Gopal Italia in Gujarat are also in the list.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) released its sixth list of 20 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly elections. So far, Aam Aadmi Party has announced 73 candidates for Gujarat.
Earlier on November 4, the AAP government announced Isudan Gadhvi, the party’s National Joint General Secretary as its chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections. The party made this announcement following a crowdsourcing campaign under which the people of the state could give their opinion on a number and an email ID shared by the party until 5 pm, November 3.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal launched the campaign on October 29 asking people whom they wanted as their chief ministerial candidate.
Meanwhile, in another jolt to Congress ahead of the Assembly elections in Gujarat, party MLA from Jhalod Bhavesh Katara submitted his resignation to Speaker Nimaben Acharya on Wednesday. He is the second leader to resign on the same day. Earlier, Congress MLA from Talala constituency in Gujarat, Bhagvanbhai D Barad, tendered his resignation from all posts of INC to Dr Nimaben Acharya.
