The BJP has announced its candidates for 160 out of 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly polls to be held next month. There were 99 BJP MLAs in the present House, out of which 30 have been denied tickets. These include eight ministers. Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba Jadeja and Hardik Patel have got the tickets.

Many senior BJP leaders like former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and former Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel have announced not to contest the elections. If sources are to be believed, the party had asked them to distance themselves from the elections this time.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has been repeated as the candidate from Ghatlodia constituency of Ahmedabad. BJP’s Gujarat in-charge Union Minister Bhupender Yadav announced the list in the presence of state unit BJP chief C R Patil, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, and party’s national General Secretary Tarun Chug here.

Yadav said out of the 160 candidates declared, 13 are from Scheduled Castes, 24 belong to the Scheduled Tribes and 14 are women. On these 160 seats, Yadav added, 69 sitting MLAs have been repeated whereas on 38 seats party’s candidates have been changed.

During his interaction, Yadav also said that senior BJP leaders from Gujarat like former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, former Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, former ministers Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, R C Faldu, and Saurabh Patel had written to the party, expressing their desire not to contest elections.

Riva Jadeja has been given the party ticket from the Jamnagar North constituency and Hardik is the candidate from Viramgam seat in Ahmedabad district. Some of the party’s significant candidates include BJP Ahmedabad city president Amit Shah (Ellisbridge constituency), Amit Thaker (Vejalpur), former minister Chiman Shapariya (Jamjodhpur), Pabubha Manek, whose election in the previous election was cancelled by the Gujarat High Court (Dwarka), former minister and Congress turncoat Jawahar Chavda (Manavadar), party’s spokesperson Mahesh Kaswala (Savarkundla).

Dalit religious leader Shambhuprasad Tundiya (Gadhada), former minister Shankar Chaudhary (Tharad), Jitendra Patel alias Bhagat (Naranpura), Bhushan Bhatt (Jamalpur-Khadia), former standing committee chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Amul Bhatt (Maninagar), former minister Ramanlal Vora (Idar), and former MLA C K Raulji (Godhra) have also been nominated. Raji is a former Congress MLA who joined the BJP and was among the committee members who cleared the release of the convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case.

Shankar Chaudhary had lost the Gujarat Assembly election 2017 from the Vav constituency of Banaskantha. This time, he has been given a ticket from the Tharad seat in Banaskantha. While Ramanlal Vora, the veteran Dalit leader of the party, will contest from Idar, sitting MLA and Gujarati film star Hitu Kanodiya has been dropped. Koli strongman and also a leader of the fisherman community Prashottam Solanki and his brother Hira Solanki have been nominated as candidates from Bhavnagar Rural and Rajula respectively.

The list also has a number of Congress turncoats. They include Ashwin Kotwal (Khedbrahma), Rajendrasinh, the son of Mohansinh Rathva who resigned from Congress two days ago (Chhota Udepur), and Bhagwan Barad who too resigned from Congress on Wednesday (Talala), Harshad Ribadiya (Visavadar), Manilal Vaghela (Vadgam), and Balvantsinh Rajput (Sidhpur).

A number of senior BJP MLAs have been dropped from their constituencies. They include Nimaben Acharya (Bhuj), Brijesh Merja (Morbi), Rajendra Trivedi (Raopura), and Madhu Shrivastav (Waghodia). The party has fielded Keshavlal Patel from Bhuj, former MLA Kanti Amrutiya from Morbi, Balkrushna Shukla from Raopura, and Ashwin Patel from Waghodia. After not getting the party ticket, Shrivastav may fight as an Independent as he has threatened.

In the prestigious seat of Rajkot West held by Rupani, BJP has fielded Dr Darshita Shah. Whereas on another BJP bastion Mehsana, which was so far held by Nitin Patel, the party has fielded Mukesh Dwarkadas Patel. On the Rajkot South seat, Ramesh Tilara, who is considered close to Khodaldham Trust chairman Naresh Patel, has been given the ticket.

The party has also dropped controversial MLA Kesrisinh Solanki from Matar, whose name is among the list of those named by the accused in the October communal clash in the Undhela village of the taluka. In Thasra, former MLA Ramsinh Parmar’s son, Yogendra, has been given a chance. Parmar, Chairman, of Amul Dairy, joined the BJP from the Congress in 2017. The Gujarat Assembly election is scheduled to be held in two phases – December 1 and 5 – to elect 182 members.