The BJP has fielded former MLA of Morbi, Kantilal Amrutiya, whose video had gone viral after he dived into the river to save people after the bridge collapsed leaving 135 people dead.


The video of the leader skirting the waters of Machchu river had gone viral soon after the tragic incident. The leader can be seen wearing water tubes and floating in the river looking to rescue people after the bridge collapsed. The leader also posted the viral video on his Twitter account.






In the video, Kantilal can be moving toward the middle of the river where the bridge had collapsed. Now, the leader will be part of the intense political battle in Gujarat scheduled this year with BJP, Congress, and AAP putting in all their energy to woo the voters. While AAP has announced 139 names so far, Congress released its first list of 43 candidates on Saturday.  


The BJP list announcement came the morning after the party poll panel met under the chairmanship of party chief JP Nadda on November 9. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister were among the attendees.


The prominent names announced include Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, former Morbi MLA Kantilal Amrutya, Cricketer Ravindra Jadeja's wife Rivaba Jadeja, and Hardik Patel.


CM Bhupendra Patel will contest the elections from the Ghatlodiya constituency.


Voting for the 182-member Gujarat legislative assembly will be held in two phases- December 1 and December 5, with results to be announced on December 8.



The list comes after a meeting of the BJP central election committee held on Wednesday to finalise the party's candidates with Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor who left the Congress to join it among the probables.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, BJP president JP Nadda and other top leaders attended the meeting at the party headquarters.


In the fiercely fought Gujarat election five years ago, the BJP had won 99 seats and its main rival Congress bagged 77 seats.


The BJP is eyeing a seventh consecutive victory in the state as it also aims to set a new record in terms of the number of seats won. BJP's move to change candidates for 38 seats can be seen as the saffron party's move to inject new energy into the organisation.


News agency PTI earlier reported sources as saying that there was a possibility of dropping several senior leaders from the list of candidates as they said the party has received suggestions that it should opt for new and young faces.