Gujarat Assembly polls: First list of BJP candidates out, CM Patel to contest from Ghatlodia

The BJP has released the first list of 160 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly elections, scheduled be held in two phases on December 1 and December 5.

While Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel will contest from his constituency Ghatlodia, the party has fielded Hardik Patel as its candidate from Viramgam.

The list was released by Union Ministers Mansukh Mandviya, Bhupender Yadav, and sState BJP chief CR Paatil at Ahmedabad on Thursday.

Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi will contest elections from the Majura constituency while Rivaba Jadeja, wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, will contest from Jamnagar North.

So far, the ruling party has named candidates for 84 of the 89 seats which will go to the polls in the first phase and 76 of 93 candidates in the second phase. 

So far, there are 14 female, 13 SC and 24 ST candidates in the list.

Interestingly, a number of sitting MLAs have been denied ticket. 

According to Yadav, the list has only 69 sitting MLAs. The party also expressed hope that it will improve its seats tally and vote share in the upcoming elections.

The list was reportedly finalised at the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting held at the BJP headquarters on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and party's national president J P Nadda.

This comes as several top leaders from the state came out in the open on Wednesday to declare that they are not in the fray.

Former chief minister Vijay Rupani and his then-deputy Nitin Patel told reporters that they have informed the leadership about their decision.

R.C. Faldu, Kaushik Patel and Saurabh Patel, who were also members of the Rupani cabinet, too declared that they are not contesting the elections.

The party had, in September 2021, changed the chief minister and his entire cabinet, a move that had raised many eyebrows.

There were allegations of corruption against the Rupani-led government, and his team was facing anti-incumbency.

Congress MLA from Jhalod in Gujarat's Dahod district Bhavesh Katara has resigned as the legislator, ahead of the upcoming state Assembly elections.

He is the third Congress MLA to resign in the last two days after Mohansinh Rathwa and Bhagwan Barad.

Katara went to the residence of Assembly Speaker Nimaben Acharya on Wednesday night and submitted his resignation to her, an official statement said.

His resignation comes at a time when the BJP is finalising candidates for the Gujarat Assembly elections. Katara is likely to join the BJP on Thursday.