The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released the names of six candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat on Sunday evening. This completes the party’s candidate list for all 26 constituencies in the state, where elections are slated for a single-phase poll on May 7.
The list revealed a significant shake-up, with five sitting MPs, including Minister of State for AYUSH and Child Development, Mahendra Munjpara from Surendranagar, being dropped. The party also introduced new faces for Vadodara and Sabarkantha, following the withdrawal of its earlier nominees, sitting MP Ranjan Bhatt and Bhikhaji Thakor, respectively.
Hemang Joshi, vice-chairman of the Municipal School Board of Vadodara Municipal Corporation, has been chosen to replace Bhatt in Vadodara. Shobna Baraiya, wife of a former BJP MLA from Prantij, will contest in place of Thakor in Sabarkantha.
The party has retained Rajesh Chudasama, the sitting MP from Junagadh, marking his third run in the Lok Sabha elections. In Surendranagar, Chandu Shihora, former president of the Morbi municipality, has been given the ticket in place of Munjpara.
In Mehsana, the BJP has chosen Hari Patel, a party worker from Unjha town, to replace Sardaben Patel. For the Amreli seat, three-term MP Naran Kachhadiya has been replaced by Bharat Sutariya, the current president of the Amreli district panchayat.
Meanwhile, the Congress party has declared candidates for 17 out of the 24 seats it is contesting in Gujarat. It has allotted two seats, Bharuch and Bhavnagar, to its I.N.D.IA. bloc partner, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has announced its candidates for both seats.
In the 2014 and 2019 general elections, the BJP had swept all 26 seats in Gujarat.
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