Gujarat polls: Morbi MLA among 38 lawmakers denied ticket in BJP's 1st list of candidates

The BJP on Thursday released its first list of 160 candidates for the two-phase Gujarat elections

The BJP on Thursday released its first list of 160 candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls, leaving out a record 38 sitting MLAs — a strategy said to be aimed at defusing 27 years of anti-incumbency.

The list consists of 69 sitting MLAs who have been repeated, while over 15 prominent candidates are Congress turncoats. Some who made it to the list include sitting Opposition party MLAs who resigned in the last couple of days.

Claiming that BJP will win the polls and break all its records, Union minister and senior BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav released the list in New Delhi in a press conference, accompanied by the party’s Gujarat chief C R Paatil.

Also read | Hardik Patel, Ravindra Jadeja's wife among 160 BJP candidates for Gujarat polls

As announced a day before, former CM Vijay Rupani, his then deputy Nitin Patel and many senior leaders who were Cabinet ministers have not been repeated. In September 2021, the BJP, in an unprecedented move had removed Rupani and his entire Cabinet and brought Bhupendra Patel to the fore.

Among those who have remained unchanged are Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who will be contesting from the Ghatlodia seat in Ahmedabad. Similarly, Minister of State for Home, Harsh Sanghavi, has been repeated from the Majura Assembly seat in Surat.

In the first list, BJP has given nearly three dozen tickets to the Patidar community — both Leuva and Kadva — leaders.

There are 14 candidates who belong to Scheduled Caste (SC), and 42 Scheduled Tribe (ST). Fourteen are women, four are doctors, and four have PhDs. The list also includes nearly 40 candidates who never went to college.

The party has given tickets to several new faces who headed civic bodies, AMPC and other party posts.

In what seems to be tying all its loose ends, the BJP has brought changes in the Morbi Assembly seat by ousting incumbent MLA and minister Brijesh Merja, a Congress turncoat, and bringing former MLA Kantilal Amratiya, who has been elected five times in the past elections. Morbi has been a BJP fortress since 1995, but in 2017, Merja, then in Congress, defeated Amratiya. Merja switched to BJP, and in the bypoll, he again won with less than 3,000 votes.

Hardik from Viramgam

The party has rewarded Hardik Patel by giving him a ticket to contest from Viramgam, his home turf. Hardik, who rose from Patidar agitation and joined Congress before hopping to BJP barely six months ago, has been negotiating for a ticket from Viramgam, about 70 km away from Ahmedabad city.