Rebellion, protests mark last day of filing papers for Phase 1 in Guj
AHMEDABAD/SURAT/GANDHINAGAR: Protests and rebellion marked the final day of filing nominations for the first phase of assembly elections in Gujarat on Monday with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fighting dissension in their ranks.
According to the election commission (EC), 89 of the state’s 182 assembly seats, largely in the state’s South Gujarat and Saurashtra regions, go to the polls on December
1. The other 93 seats vote on December 5 and the result will be announced on December 8, along with Himachal Pradesh.
The BJP is looking for its seventh straight assembly election victory in a state it considers a stronghold.
The Congress will hope to repeat its impressive performance in 2017 when it gave the BJP a run for its money and the
AAP is looking to make inroads in both BJP and Congress votebanks and garner a sizeable chunk of votes.
The BJP has declared 178 nominees and dropped at least 38 sitting lawmakers. The Congress has picked 142 people and denied tickets to three sitting MLAS. The AAP has named 178 candidates.
Congress workers stormed the party headquarters in Ahmedabad and burnt posters of senior leader Bharatsinh Solanki to protest against the decision to nominate sitting MLA Imran Khedawala from his Jamalpurkhadia seat. “People are free to protest but the party will not tolerate such violence. The Gujarat Congress president has sought for an inquiry into the matter and soon action will be taken against those behind the violence,” said Manish Doshi, Gujarat Congress spokesperson.
Protesters defaced the Congress office building’s walls with spray paint, alleging that Solanki got monetary benefits from Khedawala and ignored Youth Congress leader and former councilor Shahnawaz Shaikh in the Muslim-dominated seat in Ahmedabad.
The BJP also faced factionalism in Surat, where the powerful Koli Patel community was angry after the party fielded senior BJP leader Sandeep Desai and dropped sitting MLA Zankhana Patel in the Choriyasi assembly constituency.
Hundreds of Koli community members took to the streets in Hazira, Dumas, Abhva, Bhimpore, and Magdalla industrial belt in protest. The Koli Patels are furious with the BJP leadership for fielding Desai, a Brahmin who heads the Surat unit of the party.
“Choriyasi assembly seat has more than 1.60 lakh Koli Patel voters out of the entire 5.64 lakh voters,” said Dipak Patel, leader of Koli Patel samaj in Hazira.
Meanwhile, the Nationalist
Congress Party (NCP), which is fighting the election in alliance with the Congress, suffered a setback after its only sitting MLA, Kandhal Jadeja, resigned from all party posts and joined the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP). Jadeja, who was denied a ticket, filed his nomination from his Kutiyana seat in Porbander district.
According to the terms of the alliance, the NCP is contesting three seats — Umreth (Anand), Naroda (Ahmedabad) and Devgadh Baria (Dahod) – and hence dropped Jadeja.
In the Matar assembly seat in Kheda district, the BJP and AAP were hit by dissension. The BJP denied a ticket to sitting legislator Kesarisinh Solanki and chose Kalpesh Parmar. Kesrisinh quit the party and on Thursday joined the AAP.
The AAP had fielded Mahipatsinh Chauhan but made a last-minute change and declared the defector its nominee. An infuriated Mahipatsinh quit the AAP and decided to contest Independently. But on November 12, the BJP placated Kesarisinh.