BJP Central Election Committee (CEC), attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday held its meeting to finalise the entire list of candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls. With the BJP set to finalise its candidates for the Gujarat assembly polls, former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and senior party leader Bhupendrasinh Chudasama have said they will not contest the elections. Former state Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel will also not contest the polls.
BJP is likely to release its first list on Thursday.
Sources said that the CEC would clear seat candidates for all the 182 assembly seats in the state. Sources also said the BJP could drop at least 20 per cent of the 99 MLAs who won in the 2017 elections.
The BJP core group meeting for Gujarat polls took place at Nadda’s residence on Tuesday. The wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, Rivaba Jadeja is also likely to get a ticket from Jamnagar. Turncoats from Congress, who joined BJP including Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor, will also be contesting the upcoming elections on a BJP ticket.
Rupani, who was Gujarat’s Chief Minister from 2016 to 2021, said he had conveyed to the party leadership that he will not contest the polls.
“I worked as Chief Minister for five years with everyone’s cooperation. In these polls, responsibility should be given to new workers. I won’t contest the poll, I sent letter to seniors and conveyed it to Delhi. We’ll work to make the chosen candidate win,” he said.
Chudasama said he had fought elections nine times in a row and others should get the opportunity. “I will not fight Assembly elections, have expressed it to senior leader of party. I’ve decided other workers should get the opportunity. I’ve fought the elections nine times till now. I express my gratitude to the party,” he said.
Besides the finalisation of the list the CEC also discussed the entire gamut of election planning for Gujarat. “Since all the central and state leadership are present during this meeting, it is likely that a separate discussion will take place with the top brass on planning the campaigning for the upcoming polls, especially with PM Narendra Modi having instructed them to target the highest poll numbers ever.”
Along with the Prime Minister, the CEC meeting was attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, party chief JP Nadda, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, state BJP chief CR Patil and members of the Central election committee including BS Yeddyurappa, Devendra Fadnavis and Lal Singh Rajpura.
