Patidar leader Hardik Patel, cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba and Bhagwan Barad, who joined the BJP on Wednesday, figured in the list of 160 candidates declared by the BJP on Thursday. Gujarat votes on December 1 and 5 to elect 182 candidates.
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel will contest from Ghatlodiya, his current constituency. Nobody else had sought a ticket from that seat.
The list was announced by Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Gujarat in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and state BJP president C R Patil in New Delhi on Thursday.
The list was announced after a drama of sorts on Wednesday evening when former chief minister Vijay Rupani, his deputy Nitin Patel and five other ministers openly said that they were not keen on contesting the elections. The grapevine is that their announcement was only to avoid embarrassment as they were not to be given tickets.
In September 2021, the party leadership had changed the Vijay Rupani-led cabinet at one go. In the list that has been announced, the BJP has repeated 69 of the sitting MLAs but has preferred not to give tickets to 38 sitting MLAs.
Notable among those who have not been given tickets include Speaker Nimaben Acharya; sports minister Rajendra Trivedi; Madhu Shrivastav, known for his headstrong image; minister of state from Morbi Brijesh Merja and film actor Hitu Kanodia.
Among those who got include 14 women. The chief minister was given a rousing welcome at his Ghatlodiya office when he reached after his name was announced.
Patel told media persons that this time around the BJP will bring all records. He said that they would continue the politics of development initiated by Narendra Modi.
At a public meeting in Kaprada, Valsad last week, Modi had said that he would want that “Bhupendrabhai beats Narendrabhai’s records”. In 2002, in elections held after Godhra carnage and post-Godhra riots, the BJP had won 127 seats under the leadership of Modi as the chief minister.
Among the notable inclusions are Balkrishna Shukla, former Mayor of Vadodara and Chaitanya Makrand Desai. He has been fieled from Akota in Vadodara. Desai’s contribution in RSS and setting up the BJP has been significant in Gujarat.
While Rivaba will contest from Jamnagar (North), Hardik Patel will contest from his hometown Viramgam.
This time, the BJP will be locked in a three-cornered contest with the main opposition the Congress and the AAP.
