The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday released its first list of 160 candidates who will contest the Gujarat Assembly elections, scheduled to be held next month.
Five Gujarat ministers were among the 38 legislators who were denied ticket by the saffron party for the polls.
Minister of State for Labour and Employment Brijesh Merja, the legislator from Morbi where a newly renovated suspension bridge collapsed on October 30 and claimed 135 lives, was among those dropped. Kanti Amrutiya, a former MLA who had lost in 2017, is now the party’s candidate from Morbi.
Besides Merja, the state’s Parliamentary and Legislative Affairs Minister Rajendra Trivedi, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Pradip Parmar, Transport Minister Arvind Raiyani as well as Social Justice and Empowerment Minister RC Makwana were also denied the tickets.
The BJP also refrained from giving a ticket to Gujarat Assembly Speaker Nimaben Acharya. She had successfully contested elections from the Bhuj seat of the Kutch district in 2012 and 2017.
BJP’s Gujarat in-charge Bhupender Yadav, who announced the list, said that out of the 160 candidates declared, 13 are from Scheduled Castes, 24 belong to the Scheduled Tribes and 14 are women, reported The Indian Express.
Yadav said that several senior BJP leaders from Gujarat like former chief minister Vijay Rupani, former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, former ministers Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, RC Faldu and Saurabh Patel had asked the party not to give them a ticket in order to make way for new faces.
Among the prominent names, the saffron party granted a ticket to Hardik Patel, who had joined the party from Congress in June. He will contest from the Viramgam seat in the Ahmedabad district.
Rivaba Jadeja, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, will also contest the elections from the Jamnagar North constituency.
Gujarat will vote in two phases on December 1 and December 5. The results will be declared on December 8 along with the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections.
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