Mevani will contest from Vadgam, gets ‘tacit’ support from Congress
THOUGH THE CONGRESS DID NOT OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCE SUPPORT TO MEVANI, IT DECIDED NOT TO FIELD ANY CANDIDATE FROM VADGAM
NEW DELHI: Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani will contest the Gujarat polls from Vadgam seat in Banaskantha district as an independent candidate after the Congress tacitly left the seat vacant for him.
The opposition party also dropped four of its sitting legislators and fielded Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader Alpesh Zala (Thakor), popularly known as Alpesh Thakor, from Radhanpur constituency.
Out of the 93 seats going to polls in second phase on December 14, the Congress left two seats for the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) of former Janata Dal (United) legislator Chhotubhai Vasava.
Of the 89 constituencies where polling will be held in the first phase on December 9, the Congress had allotted three seats to the BTP.
A Congress functionary said as many as 12 candidates recommended by Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel have been given the party symbol for both the phases. The results will be announced on December 18.
Contrary to the reports that all 43 lawmakers will be re-nominated, four sitting legislators -Dharshi Khanpura (from Kankrej), Hira Patel (Lunawada) Joitabhai Patel (Dhanera) and Natvarsinh Thakor (Mahudha) – have been dropped.
Natvarsinh Thakor’s son Indrajitsinh will contest from Mahudha.
Former Gujarat Congress president Siddharth Patel will contest from Dabhoi seat in Vadodara district while senior high court lawyer Babu Mangukia, who had fought Hadik Patel’s sedition case initially, is the party candidate from Thakkar Nagar seat in Ahmedabad city.
Earlier, Mevani announced his candidature on social media on Monday, hours after the Congress released its third list of candidates just after midnight on Sunday.
Though the Congress did not officially announce the support to Mevani, it decided not to field any candidate from Vadgam, a seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes, and shifted sitting legislator Manilal Vaghela to Idar in Sabarkantha district.
Congress leaders said this was done to avoid any division of antibjp votes.
For his part, Mevani too has not announced his support to the Congress but requested other parties not to contest the seat.
“Since the ruling BJP is our key enemy, I request aspiring candidates of other parties and independents not to file their papers, so that we can have a direct battle with the BJP. This is people’s battle against dictatorship and we will continue our fight after winning this election,” he wrote on Facebook.
Mevani, who shot to limelight after a Dalit family was flogged publicly by cow vigilantes for allegedly killing a cow last year, will be locked in a direct fight with BJP’S Vijay Chakravarthi.
Just after midnight on Sunday, the Congress released its third list of 76 candidates and barely a few hours before the closing of nominations on Monday it announced the fourth list of 14 contestants. “This was done to avoid any backlash. Angry workers had attacked party offices at several places after the names for the first phase were announced,” a Congress leader said.
The previous two lists of 77 and 13 candidates for the first phase were announced on November 19 and 20 respectively.