Amidst music, rose petals and a battery of cheering supporters, the candidates of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the new entrant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) reached the office of the Returning Officer at Bahumali in Surat on Friday to file their nominations for the Katargam Assembly constituency.
Polling in the Surat district will be held in the first phase of Assembly elections on December 1, and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.
Alhough it had many aspiring candidates this time, the ruling BJP decided to continue with Minister of State for Urban Development and Urban Housing Vinod Moradiya, who currently represents the constituency, which was carved out in 2012 following a delimitation exercise. Since then, the saffron party has won the seat.
The AAP fielded their Gujarat unit chief Gopal Italia to contest against Mr. Moradiya and Congress candidate Kaplesh Variya. While the candidates of the BJP and the AAP are from the Patidar community, Mr. Variya belongs to the Prajapati community.
Speaking to The Hindu after filing his nomination papers, Mr. Moradiya exuded confidence regarding his party’s prospects of retaining the seat. “I’m going to win the seat again with a comfortable margin,” he said.
When asked about the AAP’s claims of forming the next government, the Minister said that the new entrant was just creating a buzz across the State and predicted that AAP candidates will lose their deposit in many constituencies. “Voters of Gujarat will continue to be with us and we are confident about it,” he said.
Mr. Italia also expressed confidence in winning the Assembly election, his first-ever electoral battle, saying that the BJP would no longer be able to get votes in the name of religion since the people of Gujarat want development, jobs, education for their children, and health care, not hatred. The AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha took part in his rally.
The Diamond City is dominated by the Patidars and both the BJP and the AAP have announced candidates from the community for seats in the district.
The AAP is hoping to reap the dividends of Patidar resentment against the BJP in the State, and has fielded Mr. Italia from Katargam, party general secretary Manoj Sorathia from Karanj, Ram Dhaduk from Kamrej, and diamond trader Mahendra Nevadia from Surat (North), as well as the Patidar quota agitation leaders Dharmik Malaviya and Alpesh Kathiriya from Olpad and Varachha Road respectively.
