BJP rewards turncoats, announces five former Congress MLAs as candidates in Gujarat bypolls

As was expected, all the five former Congress MLAs, who joined the BJP earlier this year after resigning as legislators ahead of Rajya Sabha elections, have been fielded by the party in Gujarat for bypolls in their respective Assembly seats.

By-elections will be held on November 3 in eight seats. The Congress MLAs had resigned from these seats before the Rajya Sabha elections in June.

The BJP on Sunday announced its candidates in seven out of these eight assembly seats of Gujarat.

Pradyumn Singh Jadeja, Brijesh Merja, JV Kakadiya, Akshay Patel, and Jitu Chaudhary — the five who had joined the BJP in June this year after resigning from the Congress — have been fielded from their respective Assembly seats of Abdasa, Morbi, Dhari, Karjan, and Kaprada.

The other three who had resigned from the Congress — Soma Patel from Limbdi, Mangal Gavit from Dangs and Pravin Maru from Gadhada — did not join any party.

The BJP also announced that its former state minister Atmaram Parmar will contest from Dangs and former MLA Vijay Patel from Gadhada.

Mr Parmar, who was earlier a four-time MLA from Gadhada, a seat reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates in Botad district, had served as minister for social justice and empowerment, and women and child welfare in the previous Vijay Rupani government. He had earlier also served as the deputy speaker of the state Assembly.

Vijay Patel, the BJP’s candidate from Dangs, had won the 2007 Assembly election, but was defeated in the 2012 and 2017 polls by the then Congress candidate Mangal Gavit.

The BJP is yet to announce its candidate in Limbdi, which was vacated after Soma Patel resigned as Congress MLA.

Some BJP leaders, who were also seeking tickets, are of the opinion that the party leadership has relied on Congress turncoats.

Dhansukh Bhanderi, the BJP in-charge of the Dhari seat told The Daily Guardian that J. V. Kakadia will definitely win the election, as there are 144 villages in the constituency and farmers are very happy with the farm laws of the central government. He further said that the BJP leaders from Amreli district are actively supporting Kakadiya.

The BJP gave ticket to Atmaram Parmar from Gadhada seat, a reserved seat. In 2017, Atmaram Parmar lost this seat despite being the cabinet minister. In 2017, two significant Dalit leaders of the state BJP lost the elections, including Ramanlal Vora and Atmaram Parmar.

Sources said that if Parmar wins by-poll then his ministerial post in the Vijay Rupani government is said to be certain. Shambhu Prasad Tundia, a religious leader of the Dalit community, also claimed the seat.

Atmaram Parmar is believed to be close to state BJP president C. R. Patil. Patil had once said that Atmaram Parmar and he started their political career together in December 1989.

The BJP leadership is still debating whether to field Kiritsinh Rana in Limbadi constituency or not. Kiritsinh Rana lost the seat to Soma Ganda Patel in 2017. While this seat is dominated by Koli Samaj, BJP leaders and ministers from this community are trying to get a ticket for a candidate of Koli Samaj in Limbadi seat.

A total of eight Congress MLAs had re- signed before the Rajya Sabha election due which these seats were lying vacant. Jitu Chaudhary from Kaprada, Mangal Gavit from Dang, Soma Patel from Limbadi, Pravin Maru from Gadhada, J. V. Kakadia from Dhari, Brijesh Merja from Morabi, Akshay Patel from Karjan and Pradyumansinh Jadeja from Abdasa had resigned then.