The BJP on Friday announced its first list of candidates for 70 Assembly constituencies in Gujarat, which includes the top three leaders, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani from Rajkot West, his deputy Nitin Patel from Mehsana and State party president Jitu Vaghani from Bhavnagar West.
Besides the top three, 10 other Ministers figure on the first list of candidates for 45 constituencies going to the polls in the first phase of voting on December 9 and 25 seats from North and Central Gujarat where voting will be held in the second phase on December 14.
Playing safe
In a cautious approach, the party has fielded as many as 50 sitting legislators and five Congress lawmakers, who had defected to the saffron camp during the Rajya Sabha election in August.
The five Congress leaders are Raghavji Patel, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, C.K. Raolji, Ramsinh Parmar and Mansinh Chauhan.
Only three MLAs, Varshaben Doshi, Bhavnaben Makwana and Nalin Kotadia, who had won on the Gujarat Parivartan Party ticket but had joined the BJP subsequently, have been dropped but the party has fielded Ms. Bhavnaben’s husband, R.C. Makwana, from the Mahuva seat.
“We have released the first list in which senior leaders have been retained, while new faces have also been brought in,” Mr. Nitin Patel told journalists after the list was released from the party headquarters in New Delhi.
Mr. Patel said the party had tried to give representation to all communities, including Patidars, who had garnered 15 seats out of 70.
Caste equations
Insiders say the party had adopted an “extra cautious approach to select candidates keeping in mind the caste arithmetic”.
“We have decided to play it safe and rely on known and established faces instead of bringing in new faces,” a senior leader involved in the candidate selection process said, adding that the central leadership did not want to disturb the existing social pattern.
Lion’s share for OBCs
The list includes candidates for 11 Scheduled Tribe (ST) and four Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved segments. The largest number of seats have been cornered by the OBCs among which Kolis take the maximum in Saurashtra and south Gujarat.
The list was finalised by the BJP’s central election committee, which met in Delhi on Wednesday.
Battle of prestige
The meeting, chaired by BJP president Amit Shah, was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj.
The elections have become a battle of prestige for the BJP, which has been in power for over two decades in the home State of Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah.
