Nominations over,it’s over to people now

Accordingly,MJP has fielded 63 candidates in Ahmedabad,77 in Surat,20 in Vadodara,27 in Bhavnagar,28 in Rajkot and 10 in Jamnagar.

The CPI has fielded two in Surat,six in Rajkot,two in Vadodara and 10 in Ahmedabad.

The LJP has concentrated on Ahmedabad,where it has fielded 50 candidates.

Except for the Congress,other parties have not given the basic details like educational qualifications of their candidates but simply released their names. MJP did not even give names of its candidates contesting elections in the six cities.

For the first time in its history in Gujarat,BJP has fielded over a dozen Muslim candidates in Surat and Ahmedabad,one of them being former IPS officer I A Saiyed who had campaigned for Bhavsinh Rathod in the Patan seat Lok Sabha by-election.

One example of Anandiben Patel’s domination over the BJP in Ahmedabad is selection of Rakesh Parikh,accountant of her son-in-law Jayesh Patel,as the party candidate from the Sardar Patel Stadium ward. It is alleged that Rakesh Parikh had been made BJP member only a few months ago and was made ward general secretary. This is going to raise eyebrows in the days to come,an anonymous letter to newspapers says.