Gujarat: Deadline looming, just one BSP candidate files nomination; other 25 names yet undeclared

Asked about Vaghela filing his nomination even before the BSP declared its candidates for Gujarat, party spokesperson for the state Pradeep Parmar said the senior workers were allowed to file nominations ahead of the release of the official list of candidates. “Yes, he (Vaghela) has filed his nomination today. He is a senior and dedicated worker and an office-bearer of the party. And the party allows such workers file their nominations even their names are not declared formally,” said Parmar. “When the list of candidates gets declared, he will produce his party mandate to the election officer. He will be our candidate from Ahmedabad (West).”

BSP chief Mayawati is scheduled to address a public rally at Kankaria football ground in Ahmedabad on April 17. “All our 26 party candidates will be present along with the party’s office-bearers in Gujarat,” said Parmar. But asked when the rest of the candidates’ names would be announced, he merely said “it will be done by the time the deadline expires.”

BSP Gujarat in-charge Chhathu Ram was not forthcoming either. “I will be in Odisha tomorrow morning and will come to Gujarat by evening,” he told The Indian Express. “After that, we will talk about this subject,” he said, responding to this reporter.

However, Gujarat BSP president Ashok Chavda said the list of candidates would be declared on Tuesday itself.

Despite the BSP’s poor performance in Gujarat the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, in which it got less than 1 per cent of the vote share, Parmar said the “top leadership has decided not to ally with any national political party”. The reason for going alone, the party’s state president Chavda said, was “to fight and expose the nexus of the Congress and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in forming governments”. Click here for more election news

He expressed confidence that the BSP would perform “much better this time”.

“We are not going to give tickets to only Dalits this time. It will be given to others (other downtrodden communities) as well,” said Chavda. “In addition, our organisation has also been strengthened a lot in comparison to the last elections ( in2014).”

In the 2014 polls too BSP contested all 26 seats. It lost all of them, with as many as 24 candidates forfeiting their deposit. The party managed to get a vote share of just 0.94%.