Battle lines drawn in two more Gujarat Lok Sabha seats

AHMEDABAD: The battle lines have been drawn for two more

Lok Sabha

constituencies in

Gujarat

. The Congress on Tuesday named its candidates for two seats – Kutch and Navsari, for which the BJP has already named its candidates.

The Congress, on expected lines, announced that Naresh Maheshwari would be its candidate from Kutch. Sitting MP Vinod Chavda has already been re-nominated by the BJP for this seat, which is reserved for SC candidates. Naresh Maheshwari is a senior Congress leader from Kutch and has been its Dalit face for long. He will be contesting his first Lok Sabha election, against Chavda who is seeking his second term as MP. Chavda won the Kutch seat in 2014 by a margin of more than 2.50 lakh votes.

In Navsari, sitting BJP MP C R Paatil will contest against Dharmesh Patel of the Congress. Patel, who is a secretary in the state Congress unit, will also be contesting his first Lok Sabha election, against BJP heavyweight Paatil, who has been the Navsari MP since 2009. Navsari is considered one of the safest seats of the BJP. Paatil won this seat in 2014 by more than 5.50 lakh votes.