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Apart from former chief minister Vijay Rupani and former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, the 38 MLAs who were dropped from BJP’s first list of 160 candidates released Thursday included former ministers Pradeepsinh Jadeja, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Saurabh Patel, RC Faldu and Kaushik Patel, along with sitting cabinet ministers Rajendra Trivedi and Brijesh Merja. While Chudasama and Patel who won by margins of less than 1000 votes in 2017, and were dropped, the party has renominated two other MLAs who won by margins lower than that of these veterans.
Announcing the party’s first list of candidates for the upcoming Gujarat elections, Gujarat incharge and Union minister Bhupender Yadav said at a press conference in Delhi, “Our senior leaders who have served the party, have written a letter to party president informing that they will not fight the elections and will work for the party.”
Yadav mentioned the names of Rupani, Nitin Patel, Chudasama, Kaushik Patel, RC Faldu, Pradeepsinh Jadeja and Saurabh Patel as those who had written to party president while opting out of the poll race.
All these leaders were part of the BJP organisation in various capacities and were also part of the state governments at some point.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah who spent close to 10 days in the state to screen the candidates, said more than once that winnability would be the only criteria in candidate selection.
Chudasama, another party veteran with strong RSS roots, is considered as the socially harmonious face of the BJP who worked as minister in the governments of both Keshubhai Patel and Narendra Modi in Gujarat. He won from the Dholka seat of Ahmedabd district in 2017 by a margin of just 327 votes.
Chudasama, who also won the 2002 and 2012 polls, has been replaced by Kiritsinh Sardarsinh Dabhi. Chudasama had lost the 2007 polls to a Congress candidate by a margin of around 2,000 votes. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has announced Jattuba Gol, while Congress is yet to announce its candidate from the seat.
Former Finance and Energy minister Saurabh Patel had won the Botad seat by 906 votes in 2017. Patel had scripted a win for BJP in 2002 with a margin of 33,000 votes against Congress and in 2007, with nearly 3,200 votes. BJP has been winning the seat since 2002. BJP has this time fielded Ghanshyambhai Pragjibhai Virani and AAP’s candidate is Umesh Makwana, while the Congress is yet to announce its candidate.
CK Raulji, who was in the Jail Advisory committee that cleared the remission of the 11 gang rape and murder convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, and had called the convicts “sanskaari Brahmins”, has been repeated although he had won by a margin of 258 votes from the Godhra seat. In 2007, Raulji won the Godhra seat for Congress by a margin of nearly 14,500 votes. After being a two-term Congress MLA, Raulji joined BJP ahead of 2017 polls. AAP’s candidate on the seat is Gautam Rajput. Similarly Jitu Chaudhary the tribal MLA who won the Kaprada seat by a margin of 170 votes in the 2017 elections as a Congress candidate, has now got a BJP ticket. Congress meanwhile is fielding Vasantbhai Barjulbhai Patel and AAP will be fielding Jayendrabhai Gavit.
Pradeepsinh Jadeja, who was the minister of state for home and law in Rupani government, had rose from the ranks. He represented BJP in Gujarat Assembly from first Asarva and then Vatva constituency.
R C Faldu was BJP MLA from Jamnagar (South) constituency. In the Rupani government, he was the agriculture minister. Having RSS roots, he was also Gujarat BJP president for one term when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister. Kaushik Patel, too, was a senior BJP leader who was representing party bastion Naranpura constitutency that falls under Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency represented by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Kaushik Patel was also party’s vice-president earlier. He has held important portfolio of revenue in the government.
Other senior leaders Rajendra Trivedi and Vasan Ahir were also dropped. Ahir, a strong BJP man from Kutch, has been getting elected to the Assembly since 1995. In the current assembly, he is an MLA from Anjar seat.
