Gujarat Prime Minister Bhupendra Patel will fight the state assembly elections from the seat of Ghatlodiya, while Hardik Patel, who recently transitioned from Congress to Viramgam, announced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday when it announced the first list of 160 candidates released.
Speaking at a press conference, union minister Bhupendra Yadav further said that cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba has been given a party ticket from the Jamnagar North seat.
The Gujarat polls will take place in two phases on December 1 and 5. The results will be announced on December 8. The Legislative Assembly of Gujarat has 182 seats. While 89 constituencies will vote in the first phase, the remaining 93 will vote in the second phase.
Here is the full list of candidates:
Ghatlodiya Assembly Seat: Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel
Abdasa Assembly Seat: Pradyumansinh Mahipatsinh Jadeja
Viramgam assembly chair: Hardik Patel
Rapar Assembly Seat: Virendra Singh Bahadur Jadeja
Rajkot East Assembly Seat: Udaykumar Kangar
Majura Assembly Seat: Gujarat Interior Minister Harsh Sanghavi
Jamnagar North: Rivaba Ravindra Jadeja
Mandvi: Anirudh Bhailal Dave
Bhuj: Keshavlal Shivdasbhai Patel (Keshubhai)
Anjar: Trikambhai Bijalbhai Chhanga
Gondal Assembly Seat: Geetaba, wife of former MLA Jairaj Singh Jadeja
Morbi Assembly Seat: Kantilal Amrutiya, a former MLA who reportedly saved lives after deadly bridge collapsed in Gujarat’s Morbi
#GujaratAssemblyPolls | BJP workers celebrate outside CM Bhupendra Patel’s office in Ahmedabad.
CM Bhupendra Patel will participate in the Assembly election from Ghatlodiya constituency. pic.twitter.com/aRWHMd36Qf
— ANI (@ANI) Nov 10, 2022
Bhupendra Yadav released the list, saying the BJP has changed as many as 38 incumbent members, claiming that most of the replacements were made with the consent of the incumbents.
The party named its candidates for 84 of the 89 seats that will go to the polls on December 1 in the first phase and 76 of the 93 candidates who go to the polls in the second phase on December 5.
Union ministers Yadav and Mansukh Mandaviya were joined by Gujarat BJP president CR Patil at a press conference here as Yadav named the candidates selected by the party’s central election committee at its meeting on Wednesday.
Yadav said the list includes 69 incumbent MLAs in addition to 14 women, and 13 and 24 members of the Schedules Castes and Schedules Tribes, respectively.
He said a number of senior state leaders, including former Prime Minister Vijay Rupani and former Deputy Prime Minister Nitin Patel, have withdrawn from the contest and wrote to the party leadership.
Patil expressed confidence that the BJP will break its previous record of seat count and vote share in these polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other CEC members including Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and National Party Chairman JP Nadda were in the meeting to finalize the candidates.
The BJP hopes to maintain its uninterrupted streak of victories in the state assembly polls since 1995.
The accession of the Aam Aadmi party has added an extra dimension to the state’s traditional bipolar elections, with the Congress, the main challenger to the BJP, being hit by another round of desertions by its leaders as it works to regroup.
(With inputs from PTI)
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