Jignesh Mevani will be filing his nomination at around 12 pm on Monday. (file photo)
On the last day of filing of nominations in phase-1 of the Gujarat Assembly elections, Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani announced he will be contesting as an independent candidate from Banaskantha’s Vadgam. He will be filing his nomination at around 12.30 pm on Monday.
“Friends, I m contesting from Vadgam-11 seat of Banaskantha district of Gujarat as an independent candidate. We shall fight, we shall win,” Mevani tweeted.
He also appealed to other parties to not field a candidate in Vadgam as his fight is with the BJP. “My appeal to other parties is not to field candidates in Vadgam so that the fight is directly between me and BJP. It has a huge Dalit and Muslim Population which will support me. There are also a large number of OBC members. The Bananskantha Dalit Sangathan is very strong in the area and it will work in our favour,” he said.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has sent his best wishes to Mevani.
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Meanwhile, the Gujarat Congress has asked its sitting MLA Manibhai Vaghela to not contest from Vadgam “as a part of an agreement” with Mevani.
“The party has asked me not to contest from the Vadgam seat this time. Though Mevani will contest the polls as an Independent, he will have Congress’ support. Thus, there won’t be any Congress candidate on this seat,” Vaghela told PTI. Mevani will be in a direct contest with BJP’s Vijay Chakravarthi.
Earlier this month, Mevani said he would neither extend support to any political party nor share stage with them. He, however, said his aim was to oust the BJP from power.
Mevani had earlier met Rahul Gandhi and said the Congress vice-president agreed to include 90 per cent of his demands in the party’s manifesto. He predicted that the BJP would not win more than 80 seats in the upcoming polls.
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