The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released the third list of its 28 candidates for the assembly elections in Gujarat, dropping as many as 15 sitting legislators, including three ministers, for the crucial polls in December.
The BJP dropped three Patidar ministers including Nanu Vanani, Jayanti Kavadiya and Vallabh Vagahsia. They represent Katargam, Dhangadhra and Savarkundla, where the agitation by the Patidar community, a politically influential group that has raised its voice under the leadership of Hardik Patel, was strong.
The BJP did not include former minister Vasuben Trivedi from Jamnagar South. She is a close aide of former chief minister Anandiben Patel, whom the party replaced with Vijay Rupani in August, 2016.
Former minister IK Jadeja, another Anandiben loyalist, was also not included despite intense protests by his supporters in the past two days.
The ruling party has allowed heavyweights, including speaker Ramanlal Vora, former energy minister Saurabh Patel and former state president RC Faldul, to change seats. They will contest from Dasada, Botad and Jamnagar South respectively.
Patel is Akota MLA and Dalit leader Vora represents Idar. Faldu lost the election in 2012 from Jamnagar Rural.
The ruling party has so far announced the nominees for 134 of the 182 assembly seats and dropped 30 MLAs in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state where the BJP has been in power for 22 years.
Voting to elect 182 members to the assembly will be held in two phases on December 9 and 14. The results are expected on December 18.
The contest in the western state will be keenly watched for signs of voters’ reactions to some of the Prime Minister’s radical economic policies that the opposition Congress party is trying to leverage to regain political ground.
Also, angry protests by Patidars – traditionally its supporters – demanding quotas in education and government jobs is a headache for the BJP, although most experts see the party retaining power in its citadel.
For the BJP, which has said it will win no less than 150 seats, it’s a prestige battle. The party has been extending its reach across the country, emboldened by a string of state election victories and consistently high public approval for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
But with the economy still reeling from last year’s cash clampdown and the bumpy implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, the party appears to have lost, for the first time since its resounding national victory in 2014, some of its unbridled confidence.
The BJP has announced several incentives for voters in the state, including loans without interest for farmers, jobs for sanitation workers and big-ticket infrastructure projects.
