Gujarat polls: Congress names 43 in its first list of candidates

The Congress’s list also includes names of former BJP MLA and former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state president Kanu Kalsariya and Praful Togadiya, cousin of former VHP leader Pravin Togadia.

Kalsariya had successfully led a farmers’ agitation against the state government over giving away land for a cement plant by the Nirma Group, and is being fielded from his former constituency of Mahuva.

Togadiya will contest from the Patidar-dominated Varachha Road seat in Surat.

Togadiya was also declared as a candidate by the Congress in 2017 from Varachha but was dropped after stiff opposition from the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS ).

Similarly, the party has fielded Nilesh Kumbhani from Kamrej in Surat. In 2017, Kumbhani was also dropped due to opposition by PAAS.

The party has fielded Darshan Naik, a cooperative leader, farmer, and advocate. He was also a former leader of the opposition with Surat district Panchayat during last term.

Former Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Arjun Modhwadia, who had lost the 2017 elections, is back in the poll fray for the Congress from Porbandar.

In Central Gujarat, the Congress has fielded Dhruval Patel from Nadiad in Kheda while in Vadodara city, it has declared candidates for four out of five urban seats, including sitting Vadodara Municipal Corporation corporator and Leader of Opposition Ami Ravat from Sayajigunj, Vadodara city unit Party President Rutvik Joshi from Akota, Sanjay Patel from Raopura and Dr Tashvin Singh from Manjalpur.

The party has also declared candidates for ten out of the 27 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) including Snehalata Govind Khant from Morva Hadaf in Panchmahal district, where the party had not contested in the 2017 polls due to an alliance with Bharatiya Tribal Party.

In the ST seat of Sankheda in Chhota Udepur, it has fielded Dhiru Bhil, who had won the constituency in 2012 and lost to BJP’s Abesinh Tadvi in 2017.

In Dahod, out of the six seats, the party has fielded Dr Mitesh Garasiya from Jhalod ST, dropping sitting MLA Bhavesh Katara, son of controversial former BJP MP Babu Katara, who had joined the Congress ahead of the 2017 election. Katara’s absence from Congress events since the arrest of his younger brother, Amit, in an alleged case of murder of a BJP leader Hiren Patel in October last year, had been an indication of his aloofness from the party.

Similarly in Dang district , the party fielded Mukesh Patel, son of former Congress MLA of Dangs Chandrabhai Patel. Mukesh’s wife, Geeta Patel, is the leader of Opposition with Dangs district Panchayat. The BJP MLA from Dangs Vijay Patel had defeated Congress candidate Suryakant Gavit (Christian) in the last assembly elections.