BJP changes candidates for wards 16, 17

VADODARA: The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) faced major embarrassment in one of the most crucial wards for the party where leader of opposition and veteran Congress councillor Chandrakant Shrivastava is contesting polls.
The BJP finalised a candidate against Shrivastava only on Saturday morning.
The BJP was earlier looking to field Manoj Patel against Shrivastava, but decided against doing so and on Thursday announced that its BJP Yuva Morcha city unit president Alpesh Limbachiya will contest against Shrivastava from ward 16.
But Limbachiya who had sought a ticket from the neighboring ward 17 denied to contest on the seat.
Given this situation, the party had to make last minute changes on Saturday and fielded Naresh Rabari against Shrivastava instead of Limbachiya who was given a ticket from ward 16 where he was keen to contest.
Ward 16 too witnessed musical chairs with Limbachiya being the first choice, but being shunted to Ward 17 later. He was replaced by Mahesh Rabari.
But Mahesh had to suffer major embarrassment on Saturday as Limbachiya returned to contest in his place and Mahesh was dropped.
On Saturday, the party replaced another candidate from Ward 16, Ritu Gosai, as she could not provide her caste certificate. She was contesting on a seat reserved for a OBC woman candidate and was replaced by Bharati More. On Friday too, the party had been forced to change its candidate for ward four where a women candidate Alka Bhabhor contesting on a ST seat for women could not furnish her caste certificate. She was replaced by Sejal Rathwa.