Congress releases second list again at midnight: Names of 46 more candidates announced, including 3 women-4 Muslim candidates
Amid the influx of Congress MLAs to the BJP, the Congress announced 43 candidates in the first list on November 4, while 46 candidates were announced in the second list, taking the total number of candidates to 89. It may be noted that after brainstorming in Delhi for the last two days, the BJP also announced the list of 160 candidates on November 10 in the morning.
17-seat MLA repeats in Saurashtra-Kutch
Out of the 46 names that the Congress has declared in the second round of ticket allocation, 29 names are from Saurashtra-Kutch. There are 17 sitting MLAs who have been reelected. Among them are Naushad Solanki of Dasada (SC), Ritvik Makwana of Chotila, Lalit Kagathara of Tankara, Md. of Wankaner. Javed Pirjada, Lalit Vasoya of Dhoraji, Praveen Muchdia of Kalavad, Chirag Kalria of Jamjodhpur, Vikram Madam of Khambhalia, Bhikhabhai Joshi of Junagadh, Babubhai Waja of Mangrol, Vimal Chudasama of Somnath, Punjabbhai Vansh of Una, Paresh Dhanani of Amreli, Virji Amhumrimar of Lathidudh, Savarkundla, Dera Rajana Pratha of Somnath. and Talaja’s Kanubhai Baraiah. Apart from this, the only candidate is Praveen Rathore from Palitana, who lost on the Congress ticket in the last 2017 election but has been repeated.
3 lost candidates replaced in Kutch and 8 new faces in Saurashtra
Congress has given a total of 11 new faces in Saurashtra-Kutch this time to declare second round tickets. In this, the Congress has replaced the three old faces by giving tickets to Mamadbhai Jung in Abdasa seat of Kutch, Rajendrasinh Jadeja in Mandvi, Arjan Bhudia in Bhuj. Kalpana Makwana has been nominated for Surendranagar’s Limdi seat, while in Rajkot Yatish Desai has got the ticket for Gondal and Deepak Vekaria as a new face in Jetpur. So far in Jamnagar, Manoj Kathiria has been given a ticket by changing the candidate only in the South seat. In this way, 2017 MLA Harshad Ribadia in Junagadh’s Visavdar has given Karsan Vadodaria a chance to join BJP. In Bhavnagar, the name of Kishore Singh Gohil has been announced for West seat and Jagdish Chavda for Garhda seat.
4 MLAs repeat in Mid-South too, new faces in 13 seats
2 new faces each in central Gujarat’s Narmada and Bharuch districts, while Anant Patel in Vansda, Sunil Gameet in Nizar, Poonabhai Gameet in Vyara and Anand Chaudhary in Mandvi have been re-elected among the incumbent MLAs. While Surat district has the highest number of eighty-four, Labora, Udhana, Limbayat, Karanj, Surat (North), Surat (East), and Mangrol have changed candidates.
Amiben ticket against Bhupendrabhai in the first list
In front of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, the Congress announced Amiben Yagnik, a woman candidate from Ghatlodia area, in the first list. Advocate in High Court. He is a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha. Apart from being educated and studious, he is also the National Spokesperson of Congress. He has also participated in various activities in the Congress at the regional level. He is also active in local issues. So Umedi Budhaji Jhala Thakor who has been announced as the candidate of the Daskroi constituency is the leader of the community. Thakor is accepted in the society. He is an old Congress leader. Everyone is playing an active role in the Congress programme.
Candidates from some areas have started working since one and a half months
The first list released by the Congress from Surat city and South Gujarat seems to have selected all the candidates correctly. After the announcement of the names of these candidates, it does not seem that the Congress is contesting elections just for the sake of contesting. That candidate had started work in his area for the last one-and-a-half months. Even when most of the candidates reached Surat during the process of taking sense, the situation is now visible that only those who can get tickets after internal discussion have been given tickets. One thing is clear that considering the type of candidates Congress has chosen in the tribal areas, Congress may not be in the discussion in the elections so far, but now everyone’s eyes will definitely be on them from the campaign till the results.
In 2017, Congress got 77 seats
There was an impression among the workers and voters that Gujarat Congress was occupied by certain leaders for many years, due to which the Congress voters were diverted. Not only this, in the 2017 assembly elections, disgruntled voters due to the Patidar agitation, Thakor Samaj agitation and Dalit Samaj agitation gave the BJP a narrow majority with barely 99 seats, while the Congress won 77 seats.
Talking about the Congress candidate for the Gujarat Assembly elections, the list of possible candidates for the 54 seats of Saurashtra is almost ready. If we look at the maths of Congress, in the year 2017, Congress won 33 out of 54 seats in Saurashtra. Out of these 33, 10 MLAs defected and joined the BJP within five years. At present Congress has 23 MLAs in Kutch Saurashtra zone. Congress is planning to repeat all these. However, it is awaited when the Congress will announce these names.
Shaktisingh will keep an eye on the election preparations
Congress has put a lot of pressure to win maximum number of seats in Gujarat. To ensure that there is no confusion, the Congress High Command has asked the current MP and in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil to pay attention to the Gujarat elections. For this, Shaktisingh has been kept away from Delhi operations for some time. While Congress working presidents like Lalit Kagathara, Jignesh Mevani, Amrish Der and Himmat Singh Patel will also contest the elections. Congress regional spokesperson Dr. Himmashu Patel has been given a ticket from Gandhinagar South.
