The BJP has retained 14 of its sitting Member of Parliament in its list of 15 candidates announced on Saturday. Among the repeated candidates is Union Minister of State for Tribal Development Jaswantsinh Bhabhor. Party sources said that the list shows that the central leadership is confident of winning the election.
Earlier, BJP had announced the name of party president Amit Shah as a candidate for Gandhinagar seat. Shah will be replacing party veteran leader, L K Advani. With this, the BJP has declared the name of 16 candidates out of 26 seats. In the last election, the BJP had won all the 26 seats.
The BJP has repeated Poonam Madam from Jamnagar seat from where Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who recently joined Congress, is said to be contesting. The new face of the BJP is a doctor Mahendra Munjpara from Surendranagar seat who has replaced Devjibhai Fatepura. According to party sources, Munjpara is "a well-known in Surendranagar district for his social works."
According to sources, even Congress had approached Munjpara to join the party. "He refused fearing that he won't be able to win," said a Congress leader. Munjpara is central council member of Indian Medical Association also.
On the other hand, BJP is yet to announce the names for some of the critical seats like Mehsana, dominated by Patel community, Porbandar, Ahmedabad East among others. Actor and BJP leader Paresh Rawal had won from Ahmedabad East seat. On Saturday, he tweeted that he is not going to contest the polls this time.
In the meanwhile, the BJP did “Ghar-Ghar Chalo Abhiyan,” in Gandhinagar from where Amit Shah will contesting. This campaign is part of its nationwide door to door campaign.
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