The Congress yesterday released its first list of 77 candidates for phase one of the Gujarat Assembly poll with senior leaders from the state, Arjun Modhwadia and Shaktisinh Gohil, getting tickets for the crucial election
The Congress yesterday released its first list of 77 candidates for phase one of the Gujarat Assembly poll with senior leaders from the state, Arjun Modhwadia and Shaktisinh Gohil, getting tickets for the crucial election. Out of the total candidates nominated, 11 belong to the scheduled tribe (ST) category and seven are from the scheduled caste (SC) category. The Congress leadership had held discussions on all the Assembly segments in the state at the party's central election committee meeting held two days ago.
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Congress Pic/AFP
The party is in talks with the NCP and breakaway faction of the JD(U) led by Sharad Yadav. It is also in discussions to have a poll arrangement with Patidar and OBC leaders, Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor respectively, party sources said. Of the total 182 assembly segments in the state, 89 seats will go to poll in the first phase to be held on December 9.The process of nomination for the phase has already started with the issue of notification on November 14. The last date for filing nominations is November 21. The remaining 93 segments will go to poll on December 14. The Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BJP after a hiatus over two decades in Gujarat. The saffron party has already declared its two lists of candidates for the first phase, fielding 106 candidates so far.
Solanki not contesting
Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki said in Ahmedabad that he would not contest the next month's polls even as he dismissed reports that he was not happy with the party high command over the selection of candidates, as reported by NDTV.