New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday launched its first checklist of 160 candidates for the two-phase elections to the 182-member Gujarat Meeting, fielding Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel from his constituency Ghatlodia and dropping a lot of sitting MLAs.
Names of Hardik Patel, the face of Patidar agitation within the 2017 meeting polls who later stop the Congress to affix the BJP, and Rivaba Jadeja, spouse of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, determine on the checklist.
Whereas Hardik Patel will contest from Viramgam, Rivaba Jadeja has been fielded from Jamnagar North.
Releasing the checklist, Union minister Bhupendra Yadav mentioned the BJP has modified as many as 38 sitting members, claiming that almost all replacements have been made with the consent of the incumbents.
The social gathering named its candidates for 84 of the 89 seats which can go to the polls within the first section on December 1 and 76 of 93 candidates going to the polls within the second section on December 5.
Union ministers Yadav and Mansukh Mandaviya have been joined by Gujarat BJP president C R Patil at a press convention right here as Yadav named the candidates chosen by the social gathering’s Central Election Committee at its assembly on Wednesday.
Yadav mentioned the checklist contains 69 sitting MLAs moreover 14 girls, and 13 and 24 members from the Schedules Castes and Schedules Tribes respectively.
He mentioned numerous senior leaders from the state, together with former chief minister Vijay Rupani and former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, have opted out of the competition and had written to the social gathering management to this impact.
Patil expressed confidence that the BJP will break its earlier document of seat tally and vote share in these polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and different CEC members, together with Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh moreover social gathering’s nationwide president J P Nadda, have been within the assembly to finalise the candidates.
The BJP is hopeful of sustaining its uninterrupted profitable streak within the state meeting polls since 1995.
The entry of the Aam Aadmi Social gathering has added an additional dimension to the state’s conventional bipolar elections, with the BJP’s foremost challenger Congress hit by a recent spherical of desertion by its leaders as it really works to regroup.