New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday released the first list of candidates who will contest in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls. The first list has named 70 candidates for Gujarat’s 182 assembly seats. The elections are due to be held in two phases, on December 9 and 14. News 18 brings you some key takeaways from the list.
Congress-yukt BJP
BJP President Amit Shah may have given a slogan for ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ (Congress-free India), but his party’s first list for the upcoming Gujarat polls has names of several prominent former Congress MLAs. The BJP has also given tickets to five rebel Congress who quit their party and joined the BJP during the Presidential election and the Rajya Sabha election of Ahmed Patel. The five former Congressmen who received BJP tickets this year are Raghavji Patel, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Ramsinh Parmar, Mansinh Chauhan and C K Raolji. These five leaders are considered loyalists of former Gujarat CM and Jan Vikalp Morcha founder Shankarsinh Vaghela, who also quit Congress recently. All five of them had cross-voted during the Presidential election and during the Rajya Sabha election of Ahmed Patel, resulting in embarrassment for the Congress.
BJP bets on old faces
While there was widespread speculation over whether the BJP would cut several of its sitting MLAs in the list to beat any anti-incumbency factor, the first list seems to have defied those claims. The BJP has repeated 50 sitting MLAs in the first list. The MLAs who have been repeated are Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, Gujarat health minister Shankar Chaudhary. Only two MLAs, Varsha Doshi of Wadhwan and Nalin Kotadiya of Dhari, were dropped from the BJP list. The seat of BJP MLA Bavku Udhad, who is the sitting MLA from the Lathi constituency, has been changed to Amreli.
While some feel that the BJP has projected an air of confidence by repeating sitting MLAs, giving a message that there was no anti-incumbency, others believe the ruling party was playing it safe.
Patidar factor
In the list of 70 names in the list of candidates, the BJP has included the names of 16 Patidars, including that of Deputy CM Nitinbhai Patel. The BJP has been beleaguered in the face of a Patel agitation led by 24-year-old Hardik Patel. The BJP has clearly reached out to the Patidar community and has put the ball in the Congress’s court. If the Congress fields less than 16 out of 70 names, it risks being seen as less pro-Patidar than the BJP. If it fields a higher number of Patidars, it risks alienating other communities such as OBCs in Gujarat.
CM Rupani to contest from ‘Kingmaker’ seat
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has been given the BJP ticket from Rajkot West Vidhan Sabha seat, which he currently represents. Rajkot West has been called BJP’s “Kingmaker seat” and is a prestige battle for the ruling party. In 2002, Narendra Modi contested the first-ever election of his life from Rajkot West and won, before being anointed CM. This time, the BJP candidate is Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. In the 1984 elections, BJP leader Vajubhai Vala won the seat by beating Congress candidate Harshdaba Chudasa. Vala remained the MLA from Rajkot West till 2002, when he vacated the seat for BJP’s CM-designate Narendra Modi. The future Prime Minister won the election from Rajkot West after polling 45,298 votes. His opponent, Congress leader Ashwini Maheta polled 30,570 votes in the bypoll. When the BJP formed the government at the Centre in 2014 and Modi finally ascended the high seat in Delhi, Vala was rewarded for keeping the BJP fortress intact and was made the Governor of Karnataka. In the 2014 bypoll, the seat then passed on to Vijay Rupani, who won with 81,092 votes. He beat his Congress opponent Jayanti Kalriya, a Patidar, by over 23,000 votes. In August 2016, when Chief Minister Anandiben Patel resigned, Rupani was elevated to CM.
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