The BJP will allow candidates above 60 years of age to contest the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections, according to BJP state president CR Paatil. The party swept the local body polls held early this year with fresh faces getting a chance to contest after candidates above 60 years were barred from contesting. However, that bar does not apply to the upcoming Assembly elections, Paatil said on Monday. Addressing BJP workers and supporters in Amreli during an event organised to felicitate Parshottam Rupala on his elevation as Union minister of cabinet rank, Paatil said, “The BJP, at its parliamentary board meeting, took some decisions like not allotting tickets to people older than 60 years. It applies to (municipal) corporations and district panchayats (polls) and does not apply to Assembly elections.” In the run up to the local body polls in February this year, Paatil had announced that the parliamentary board had decided to not to allot tickets to those above 60 years of age or those who have served three terms in a local body, to contest elections to municipal corporations, municipalities, district panchayats and taluka panchayats in the state. Paatil had also announced that more than one member from a family would not be made an office-bearer of the party and that one individual would not get to hold more than one office simultaneously. “Due to these decisions, youths got opportunities. They seized the opportunity and thanks to their acceptance (by the public), we scored grand victories in the local body polls,” said the BJP president. The bar set for the local body elections was supposed to be a dry run for the Assembly elections. Paatil’s statement comes ahead of Assembly elections in an indication that the BJP has switched to election mode, after yatras taken out by Union ministers over the past week.
