Gujarat Assembly polls: Hardik Patel get BJP ticket

A number of former Congress MLAs in Gujarat who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP after resigning as legislators in the last five years have been given an opportunity by the ruling party to fight the upcoming state Assembly pollsApart from former Congress working president and prominent Patidar leader Hardik Patel who quit the opposition party in May this year several former Congress MLAs who joined the BJP have been given tickets from the seats from where they had won byelectionsThe BJP on Thursday released its first list of 160 candidates for the twophase elections to the 182member Gujarat Assembly fielding Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel from his constituency Ghatlodia and dropping a large number of sitting MLAsThe Congress had won 77 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections Of these 77 legislators as many as 20 resigned during the past five years with three quitting in the last two days alone A majority of these 20 MLAs had won the byelections necessitated by their resignation and most of them have been given another chance by the BJP to contest the elections to be held on December 1 and 5Also read ED political weapon of Modi Shah to target political opponents Jairam RameshThe BJP has given ticket to Rajendrasinh Rathva son of Congresss seniormost former MLA and tribal leader Mohan Rathva who had resigned two days before the ruling party announced its list Patel will contest from Viramgam seatApart from Rathva the MLAs who resigned this year including Bhagvan Barad Harshad Ribadiya and Ashvin Kotwal have also been given a chance to contest from their respective seats Talala Visavadar and Khedbrahma as BJP candidatesAlso Read Sharad Pawar not to join Congresss Bharat Jodo Yatra on November 11The party is yet to decide the fate of Bhavesh Katara the latest to resign from the Congress as it has not yet declared the name of candidate on the Jhalod seat which he representedAlso the BJP is yet to decide whether prominent OBC leader Alpesh Thakor who had quit the Congress from the Radhanpur seat in 2019 and lost the byelection will get a chance to contest the upcoming election on its ticket or not as the ruling party is yet to declare the name of candidate from this seatAmong the MLAs who had quit the Congress in the last five years and won the bypolls on the BJP ticket are Kunvarji Bavaliya Jasdan seat Jawahar Chavda Manavadar Jitu Chaudhary Kaprada Akshay Patel Karjan J V Kakadiya Dhari and Pradyumnasinh Jadeja AbdasaBavaliya had resigned in July 2018 and became the first Congress MLA to quit after the 2017 elections The prominent Koli leader went on to win from his stronghold Jasdan and was made a cabinet ministerJitu Chaudhary an MLA from Scheduled Tribereserved seat of Kaprada who was made the Minister of State for Fisheries and Kalpsar after winning the byelection is among the Congress turncoat MLAs who have been repeated by the BJPThe saffron party however decided not to give another chance to Brijesh Merja a former Congress MLA who had resigned in March 2020 ahead of the Rajya Sabha election and won the Morbi byelection On October 30 as many as 135 people lost their lives in the Morbi suspension bridge collapse tragedy that occurred in his constituencyThe BJP has also not given a chance to Dhrangadhra MLA Parshottam Sabariya He had resigned as a Congress legislator in March 2019 and went on to win the byelection as a BJP candidate But this time the BJP has fielded Prakash Varmora from this seatThe BJP also decided not to give another chance to former Bayad MLA Dhavalsinh Zala who had resigned along with the then Radhanpur Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor Both Zala and Thakor had resigned in June 2019 and both of them lost to Congress candidates in the byelection that followed Thakors fate is yet to be decided by the BJPThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever