A day after two BJP candidates in Gujarat withdrew from the Lok Sabha election race, first-timers were declared as their replacements on Sunday. Hemang Joshi is set to contest from Vadodara after two-time MP Ranjan Bhatt announced she won't fight for a third term. In Sabarkantha, Shobhana Baraiya is the new poll candidate after Bhikhaji Thakor's withdrawal from the electoral contest. On Saturday, Bhatt and Thakor had declared in similar posts on social media that they were opting out of the poll race due to "personal reasons". Thakor had later withdrawn his Facebook post. Joshi and Baraiya were among the six Gujarat leaders who made it to the BJP's fresh list of 16 Lok Sabha candidates. In Surendranagar, the party has dropped Union Minister and MP Mahendra Munjpara while giving a poll ticket to Chandu Shihora. This is the final list of the ruling party for the state as candidates for all 26 seats have been announced. Wife of former MLA Mahendra Singh Baraiya, Shobhana Baraiya - who has been nominated in place of Thakor -has been working as a teacher for 30 years. She is presently working at a primary school in Prantij. Dr Hemang Joshi, 33, is currently the vice chairman of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation's School Board. He describes himself as a "human resource enthusiast". Joshi has a Bachelors in Physiotherapy, Masters in Human Resource Management (MHRM), and a Post Graduate Diploma in Law. According to party leaders, Joshi has close connections with senior RSS leaders and has been an active member of the BJP's youth wing in Vadodara for a few years. He works as an HR manager at a defence start-up in Vadodara. He is also the Vadodara president of the Vallabh Youth Organisation (VYO), headed by spiritual leader Vrajrajkumar Goswami. He was appointed VYO chief in January after the former chief, Paresh Shah, was arrested over the Harni boat capsize tragedy in Vadodara that killed 14. Joshi was a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) between 2010 and 2013 before he joined the BJP. He has also been the convenor of the Doctor Cell of the Yuva Morcha of the BJP and has worked actively in the election campaign of the Akota Assembly constituency in the 2022 Gujarat polls. He is also the Vadodara working president for the Bardai Brahma Samaj. Meanwhile, Rajesh Chudasama has been given a ticket from Junagadh for the third time. He and his father Naran Chudasama are booked in an FIR - filed at the Veraval police station of Junagadh - for allegedly abetting the suicide of a practising physician Dr Atul Chag last year. In Mehsana, after former Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel opted out of the poll race, the BJP has given the ticket to another Kadva Patidar - Haribhai Patel. The 62-year-old leader from Sunak village in Unjha taluka is the former president of BJP Mehsana Karobari Samiti, district panchayat Mehsana, and former vice president of Mehsana unit of the party. His wife Daxaben was two two-term zilla panchayat president in 2001 and 2010. He unsuccessfully contested in 2015 from Unava zilla panchayat. Chandu Shihora has been nominated in place of Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development and AYUSH Mahendra Munjpara. Munjpara, a practicing physician, had contested his maiden election in 2019 from Surendranagar and was sworn in as a Minister in 2021. Shihora, on the other hand, is a former president of Morbi district panchayat and is still a sitting member of that panchayat. He hails from Halvad town of Morbi district and belongs to the Koli community. The BJP has also decided to field Bharat Sutariya, a new face in the Amreli Lok Sabha seat race, in place of three-time MP Naran Kachhadiya. Kachhadiya is serving his third straight term, having won Lok Sabha elections in 2009, 2014, and 2019. Sutaraiya is the incumbent president of Amreli district panchayat and has also served in Lathi taluka panchayat before. A Leuva Patel, Sutariya, who is a farmer, has also served in BJP's unit for Lathi taluka. ”While he had staked a claim to party ticket, not many in the local unit of the BJP believed that the party would choose him as a candidate," a local party leader said.
