The much-awaited list of the BJP Gujarat Assembly elections 2017 candidates was released on Friday. The list carried 70 names of the candidates for the two-phase poll in Gujarat on December 9 and 14.

From the list 45 candidates will contest in the first phase on December 9 and the remaining 25 will contest on December 14.

BJP had received 4500 applications from people asking for seats out of which only 70 made to the first final list.

The party has renominated 49 of its sitting MLAs, in the first list as compared to its 2007 and 2012 polls, where BJP had dropped 47 and 30 sitting MLAs respectively.

There are four women candidates also namely – Ramilaben Becharbhai Bara from Khedbrahma, Manishaben Vakil from Vadodara City,  Sangitaben Rajendrabhai Patil from Limbayat and Vibharvriben Dave from Bhavnagar East.

In the current list, only two sitting MLAs have been dropped, coincidentally both are women- Varshaben Doshi from Wadhwan, Surendranagar constituency and Bhavnaben Makwana from Mahua, Bhavnagar constituency.

Bhavnaben made way for her husband Raghavji Makwana who was picked to contest the Assembly elections in her place after she decided to vacate the seat for him.

Ketan Inamdar, from Savli constituency, who contested the 2012 elections as in independent and won, has also been granted the ticket after he joined back the BJP a few months ago.

This has brought respite to all the MLAs who were speculating that BJP might follow the old practice of dropping the sitting MLA like they did in the past.

The list has given way to 16 new entrants. Interestingly, 5 people who defected from the Congress party and had recently joined BJP, were also given tickets. They are Raghavji Patel in Jamnagar (Rural), Dharmendrasinh Jadeja from Jamnagar (North), CK Raulji from Godhra, Mansinh Chauhan from Balasinor and Ramsinh Parmar from Thasra.

The BJP list includes 26 from the OBC category that includes the Thakor and Koli Patels, 15 Patidars, 11 from the Schedule Tribe Community, 8 Kshatriyas, 3 Schedule Castes, 2 Jain and Brahmin each and 3 from the other castes.