In its final list of 37 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly elections announced on Wednesday, the Congress has fielded former Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela’s son Mahendrasinh Vaghela from Bayad, and former BJP MP and Minister Prabhatsinh Chauhan from Kalol in central Gujarat.
Mr. Mahendrasinh Vaghela was a two-time Congress legislator from the same seat before he quit the party in 2017 along with his father and others. He recently returned to the party and has now been fielded as a candidate.
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Similarly, Prabhatsinh Chauhan, a veteran Other Backward Class (OBC) face in Panchmahal district, joined the Opposition Congress party recently and now has been fielded from Kalol, a family pocket borough where the outgoing BJP legislator is his daughter-in-law, Suman Chauhan. She has been denied the ticket by the ruling party, which has instead fielded Fatehsinh Chauhan, a former legislator.
The Congress has denied a ticket to five sitting legislators, including from Bayad, where the sitting MLA has been dropped to accommodate the junior Mr. Vaghela.
In the Dhandhuka seat of Ahmedabad district, the Congress has denied the ticket to its incumbent MLA Rajesh Gohil and fielded the head of the Gujarat Youth Congress, Harpalsinh Chudasama. Another sitting legislator dropped by the party is Niranjan Patel from Petlad, who has been replaced by an OBC face, Prakash Parmar.
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Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor’s brother Amurtji Thakor has been fielded from the Kankrej seat in Banaskantha district.
With the announcement of 37 candidates, the Congress had completed the candidate selection process and fielded candidates for 179 out of 182 seats, with three seats left for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as part of its State alliance.
The party has dropped nine of its legislators in the State while given preference to OBC candidates across regions.
In all, the Congress has fielded six Muslim candidates — two from Ahmedabad city, one from Kutch, one from Rajkot district, one from Bharuch, and one from Surat.
In the outgoing Assembly, the Congress has three sitting Muslim MLAs, who are being repeated by it as candidates for the forthcoming elections.
Among the heavyweights contesting from the party are the former Leader of the Opposition and State party chief Arjun Modhvadia from Porbandar; former party chief Amit Chavda from Anklav; former Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Paresh Dhanani from Amreli; and former Union Minister and tribal leader Tushar Chaudhary from Khedbrahma in north Gujarat.
The BJP also announced three candidates on Wednesday — for the Kheralu, Mansa and Gadhada seats. Now, only one candidate for the Manjalpur seat in Vadodara city left to be announced by the ruling party.
Thursday is the last day for filing of nomination papers for the second phase of the Assembly polls for 93 seats in central and north Gujarat.
