Gujarat elections 2022 | BJP releases list of 160 candidates, 38 sitting MLAs dropped

Women and Congress turncoats given preference as BJP announced first list of 160 candidates for next month’s Gujarat Assembly elections

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba Jadeja and Congress turncoat Hardik Patel figure in the first list of 160 candidates announced by the ruling party for the State Assembly polls. 

The BJP has fielded Rivaba Jadeja, who joined the party in 2019, as its candidate for the Jamnagar North seat for the polls, dropping current MLA Dharmendrasinh M. Jadeja, who is a Congress turncoat, The High Court declined to withdraw criminal proceedings against him in a rioting case on Wednesday. 

The ruling party has fielded Congress-import Hardik Patel from Viramgram, his home turf in Ahmedabad district seat. Mr. Patel was the face of the Patidar quota agitation and was the working president of Gujarat Congress before he moved to the ruling party in August. 

Another Congress turncoat is former legislator Manibhai Vaghela, who has been fielded from Vadgam seat to take on the sitting MLA and prominent Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani from the Congress. 

From Morbi, where a bridge collapse killed over 140 people on October 29, the party has replaced the sitting MLA and Minister Brijesh Merja, and instead selected Kanti Amrutiya, a former MLA who had lost in 2017. Mr. Merja was also a Congress turncoat who had defected to the ruling party in 2020 and was made a Minister in 2021. 

Among other Congress imports are Pradhyumansinh Jadeja who had switched over in 2020, tribal legislator Ashwin Kotwal, who joined the saffron camp in July this year, Harshad Ribadia, who joined the party last month, Bhaga Barad, who jumped to BJP on Wednesday and Rajendrasingh Rathwa, whose father and the senior most Gujarat MLA Mohansinh Rathwa who joined on Tuesday. 

The party has dropped as many as 38 sitting legislators including outgoing Assembly Speaker Nimaben Acharya and Cabinet Ministers Pradip Parmar, Rajendra Trivedi and others. The 160 list includes as many as 14 women including several sitting legislators.