The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday announced its first list of 70 candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections. The BJP seems to have played safe by repeating 51 of its sitting MLAs, while dropping only two, both women. It has also played the OBC card, as more than one-third of the 70 candidates belong to various Other Backward Classes.
The list includes Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who has been nominated from Rajkot West seat, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel (Mehsana), state BJP chief Jitu Vaghani (Bhavnagar West), Revenue minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama (Dholka), Health minister Shankar Chaudhary (Vav), among others.
The list names candidates for 42 seats in Saurashtra, Kutch and south Gujarat, which go to the polls in the first phase on December 9, and 28 seats of central and north Gujarat, where polling will take place on December 14. A total of 89 seats will go to the polls in the first phase and 93 in the second phase.
"The party has repeated most of the sitting MLAs, but has also given a chance to 15 new faces. All the sections and communities have been given adequate representation. We are confident that people will once again vote for us," Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said.
Four women candidates found place in the list: Ramila Bara from Khedbrahma ST seat, Vibhavari Dave from Bhavnagar East, Manisha Vakil from Vadodara City SC seat, and Sangita Patil from Limbayat seat in Surat.
Patidar dilemma
Among the 70 candidates, 15 are Patidars, a community that is at loggerheads with the state over reservation demand. Given the importance of the Patidar issue, and possibly waiting for the outcome of talks between Congress and Patidar agitation leaders over extending support in the elections, the BJP has not announced candidates for several Patidar dominated seats in Saurashtra as well as Surat, which go to polls in the first phase.
OBC outreach clear
The list features 25 candidates from various OBCs, a community the party has been wooing to negate any impact of Patidar unrest. These include eight Kolis, four Ahirs, three Thakors and two Chaudharys.
The list also comprises 10 Kshatriya candidates, three Brahmins, two Jains, 11 tribals and three SC candidates.
The BJP said in a release that its Central Election Committee, which met under the presidentship of party chief Amit Shah, and was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and others, approved names of the 70 candidates.
Two sitting MLAs dropped
The BJP has dropped two sitting MLAs. Bhavna Makwana, who represented Mahuva seat, has not been repeated. Instead, her husband Raghavji Makwana has been nominated.
Two-term MLA Varsha Doshi, who represented Wadhwan seat in Surendranagar, has also been dropped. BJP has instead fielded industrialist Dhanji Patel from the seat.
Many new faces
The new faces in the list include former IPS officer PC Baranda, who resigned from service two days ago. He has been nominated from Bhiloda (ST) seat.
The other new faces include Bhikhusinh Parmar (Modasa), Arjunsinh Chauhan (Mehmedabad), Kalubhai Chavda (Khambhalia), Ravji Vasava (Jhagadia ST) and Ganpat Mahla (Vansda ST.)
