Gujarat BJP suspends 7 of its leaders for contesting polls as independents

This time, the BJP is facing more revolts on many seats as compared to the Congress

With the first phase of the Gujarat election barely two weeks away, the Gujarat BJP Sunday suspended seven of its leaders including two former MLAs for indiscipline. Defying the party's instruction, these seven leaders are said to have filed nominations as independent candidates for the polls on December 1.

These suspended leaders include Harshad Vasava, a tribal leader contesting from the Nandod assembly seat in Narmada district, Arvind Ladani from Keshod seat in Junagadh, Chattrasinh Gunjara from Dhrangadhra seat in Surendranagar, Ketan from Pardi in Valsad, Bharat Chavda, Rajkot rural, Uday Shah from Veraval in Gir Somnath and Karan Baraiya from Rajula seat in Amreli district.

This is the first time that the BJP has suspended its leaders en masse around a high-stake assembly election. Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah are also in Gujarat campaigning for the party. Another rebel BJP leader Madhu Shrivastav from Waghoda seat in Vadodara is contesting as an independent candidate.

In a statement, BJP said that on instructions from C R Paatil, Gujarat BJP president, these leaders have been suspended. It added that these leaders filed nominations independently to contest against the candidates chosen by the party.

Ever since the ruling party announced the list of candidates, the party has been struggling with rebellions. The party dropped the name of 38 of its sitting MLAs that included former chief minister Vijay Rupani, deputy chief minister Nitin Patel and many other senior party leaders.

The BJP leaders are also said to be upset over the fact that nearly 20 tickets have been given to Congress turncoats, ignoring the workers who have been with the party since long.

BJP leaders said that this is certainly the first time that the party is witnessing protests by workers at this scale. The party had to close the gates of its headquarters, Kamalam, in Gandhinagar due to such protests.