The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced the names of 160 candidates for the upcoming prestigious elections in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and where the party has been in power for the past 27 years.
The saffron party has fielded 69 sitting MLAs from their respective seats while 38 new faces have been given chance to try their fate. Several former Congress MLAs who joined the BJP have been given tickets from the seats from where they had won byelections.
In the fiercely fought Gujarat election five years ago, BJP had won 99 seats and its main rival Congress bagged 77 seats. With the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party, the otherwise bipolar Gujarat elections have become a three-cornered battle this time.
Gujarat will go to polls in two phases on December 1 and December 5 while results of the election will come on December 8.
Here Are The BJP's Heavyweight Candidates Named In The First List:
Bhupendra Patel
Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel has been fielded from the prestigious seat of Ghatlodia from where he is the current MLA. In the 2017 elections, he defeated Congress' Shashikant Patel by a margin of over one lakh votes.
Rivaba Jadeja
Rivaba Jadeja is the wife of Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, and she will contest the polls on BJP ticket from the Jamnagar North seat. Rivaba has previously served as the leader of the Rajput community organisation Karni Sena. There are chances that Congress may field Ravindra Jadega's sister Naina Jadeja from this seat making the fight more interesting.
Kantilal Amrutya
Former BJP MLA from Morbi, Kantilal Amrutya, has been selected to contest the assembly poll from the seat. Reports suggest that he was chosen after videos reportedly showed him jumping into the river to save people following the bridge collapse in October in which 136 people died. He had lost the 2017 polls against Congress’ Brijesh Mishra by a margin of 3419 votes.
Hardik Patel
Patidar leader and former Congressman Hardik Patel has been given ticket from the Viramgam seat that the BJP lost in the last two assembly polls.
Jawahar Chavda
Current BJP MLA and Congress turncoat Jawahar Chavda will contest the Gujarat polls from the Manavadar seat. He won the constituency in 2017 on Congress ticket by a margin of 29,763 votes. He later joined BJP.
READ: Gujarat Election 2022: Aam Aadmi Party Releases 14th List Of 10 Candidates
Mahesh Kaswala
BJP spokesperson Mahesh Kaswala will be fighting from the Savarkundla seat that Congress party won in the previous polls by a margin of 8531 votes.
Shambhuprasad Tundiya
Dalit religious leader Shambhuprasad Tundiya will try to win the Gadhada seat for the party thath is currently being held by Congress. The grand old party had claimed the seat by a margin of over 9000 votes.
Udaykumar Kangar
Udaykumar Kangar will fight the Gujarat polls from the Rajkot East seat. Rajkot is known as a BJP stronghold and the battle here would be interesting to see. BJP had won this seat in 2017 with a huge margin of over 22000 votes.
Pradyuman Jadeja
Another former Congress leader Pradyuman Jadega will contest the election from the Abdasa seat which he won in 2017 on Congress’ ticket by 9746 votes.
Maltiben Maheshwari
Sitting Gandhidham MLA Maltiben Maheshwari will be defending her constituency in the upcoming polls. She had claimed the seat with over 79000 votes.