With just a couple of days left for the nominations to be filed in Gujarat, all eyes are set on the Congress who are yet to declare their final list of candidates in the state.
The Congress is yet to announce its candidates for 11 Lok Sabha seats. The leaders of the state unit were seen flying to Delhi, last week, to meet the party high command and arrive at a consensus.
Meanwhile, the BJP is yet to declare its candidates in just one seat – Ahmedabad (East) – as the saffron party declared Sharda Patel as candidate from Mehsana and Darshana Jardosh from Surat, on Tuesday, 2 April.
By 4 April, both parties will have their final list of candidates for Gujarat and the state will decide on 23 April which candidate goes to the lower house of the Parliament.
No Consensus on Ahmedabad (East)
Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections for the first time and won the seat with 64.29 percent voter share. However, local BJP cadres were not impressed with Rawal’s stint as MP and had raised concerns about his nomination from the seat.
Eventually, Paresh Rawal withdrew from polls and stated on Twitter that he will continue his support for the BJP. Ahmedabad East has predominantly remained a BJP bastion and consists of seven Assembly constituencies.
The Congress too has not declared its candidate from the seat.
The Endless Woes of Congress
The Congress has lost major political capital in Gujarat right at the onset of campaigning for the 2019 general elections. In the last two months, the party lost four MLAs to the BJP. To top it off, Hardik Patel will not be able to contest elections as his conviction in a rioting case was not stayed by the Gujarat High Court.
Hardik had expressed his desire to contest from Jamnagar seat. Meanwhile, sources in the know claim that the party could very well field Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda and leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Paresh Dhanani in Kheda and Amreli respectively.
Chavda, who is an MLA from Anklav constituency in Anand, has a strong connection in both Kheda and Anand, and he has been working on a support base for his uncle, former Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki, who will contest from Anand Lok Sabha seat.
Meanwhile, Paresh Dhanani has a stronghold over Amreli and was elected to the Assembly from the same seat. Dhanani has been instrumental for the Congress within the Assembly and at the grassroots level in Amreli, rallying for the farmer’s cause. He is also a close confidant of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and could be the beacon of hope for the party in Saurashtra.
Ahmed Patel May Contest From Bharuch
Meanwhile, party cadres are demanding Ahmed Patel’s nomination from Bharuch district. Patel, currently a Rajya Sabha member, won from Bharuch thrice, in 1977, 1980 and 1984, but lost to BJP’s Chandubhai Deshmukh in 1991, after which he did not contest from the seat.
“People want Patel to contest from Bharuch, because they believe this will help the Congress win the seat, and its positive impact will be felt on other seats in Gujarat as well. It will be clear in the next two-three days whether he will contest from Bharuch, but we (local unit party workers) have requested him.”Rajiv Satav, election in-charge of Gujarat Congress
The suspense over the nominations will be lifted in a matter of hours and both parties will swing hard at each other to retain their prowess in the state. For the BJP, it’s a matter of prestige as it is keen to repeat its clean sweep albeit chances look slim.
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