BJP national president Amit Shah arrived in Ahmedabad on Thursday afternoon and reached party’s state office Shri Kamalam near Koba. He conducted a meeting with party MLAs and announced Balwantsinh Rajput as the third candidate of party for Rajya Sabha polls.
Rajput who joined BJP after resigning as member of Congress, MLA from Siddhpur and party’s chief whip in Assembly on Thursday, will contest against Congress nominee and Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel.
Shah said in the meeting, “After the meeting of national Parliamentary board on Wednesday, the party high command handed over the power to Gujarat BJP unit to decide the third candidate for RS polls. Utilising this power, I propose the name of Balwantsinh Rajput for that.”
All the party leaders supported Shah’s proposal to name Rajput as the third candidate. All three candidates of BJP for RS polls, Amit Shah, Smriti Irani and Balwantsinh Rajput will file their nomination on Friday morning at Gujarat Assembly. While Shah would debut in the Parliament as Rajya Sabha member, this would be Irani’s second term from Gujarat. BJP has nominated three candidates for three seats of Rajya Sabha while Congress has fielded only two candidates.
Rajput sold tea
Like PM Modi, Balwantsinh, 55, had to work on a tea stall as he could not complete his schooling due to poor economic condition of the family. Today, he is into the business of oil mill and solvents. He had declared assets of Rs250 crore while filing nomination in last Assembly elections.
His son is married to granddaughter of Shankersinh Vaghela and daughter of Bayad MLA Mahendrasinh Vaghela. He had contested Assembly elections from Siddhpur constituency in 1998 as Congress candidate but lost to BJP’s Jay Narayan Vyas. Later in 2002 he won against Vyas but was defeated by him in 2007.
