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Journalism of Courage
As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of 160 candidates for the upcoming Gujarat polls on Thursday, one of names that featured on the list was cricketer Ravindrasinh Jadeja’s wife Rivaba Jadeja who got a party ticket from Jamnagar North constituency.
Rivabha, who was the chief of women’s wing of Karni Sena, formally joined the BJP in 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. At a media event at BJP’s Jamnagar office, she was welcomed to the party by Jamnagar-South MLA Rancho Faldu and Jamanar MP Poonam Maadam.
A year before, in 2018, Rivaba had hit headlines when she was allegedly assaulted by a police constable in Jamnagar city. However, the police constable had alleged that Rivaba was driving her car rashly and rammed into his bike just outside police headquarters in the city. The officer, who was arrested, was later granted bail by a local court after his advocate contended that the accused had been ‘wrongly arraigned.’
Jamnagar is the home town of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja.
The BJP, meanwhile, fielded Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel from the Ghatlodia seat, Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi from Majura constituency, and Hardik Patel, who recently quit the Congress to join BJP, from Viramgam.
The party Thursday announced candidates for 84 of the 89 seats which will go to the polls in the first phase on December 1, and 76 of 93 candidates going to the polls in the second phase on December 5. The results of the Assembly polls will be announced on December 8.
The announcement was made in Delhi by Union Ministers Bhupendra Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya and Gujarat BJP president C R Patil. Releasing the list, Yadav said the BJP has changed as many as 38 sitting members, claiming that most replacements have been made with the consent of the incumbents.
