BJP drops three more sitting MPs, brings in new faces

Sitting MPs of Anand, Patan, and Chhota Udepur have been dropped by the BJP. The party announced the candidates for four

Lok Sabha

seats of

Gujarat

on Sunday. The candidate for the Junagadh Lok Sabha seat has been repeated.

The BJP has so far named 23 candidates, while the Congress has named 13. With the names for three more seats yet to be announced, the BJP has so far dropped seven sitting MPs.

Sitting MP Liladhar Vaghela has been dropped from the Patan seat and former parliamentary secretary Bharatsinh Dabhi has been given the ticket by the BJP against Jagdish Thakor of the Congress. Both parties have fielded Thakor candidates.

The BJP has picked Mitesh Patel alias Bakabhai for Anand. And for Chhota Udepur it has chosen Geeta Rathwa. The two names threw a surprise as heavyweights and sitting MPs Dilip Patel and Ramsinh Rathwa were dropped.

Party insiders said that the two sitting MPs were not repeated due to discontent against them at local levels. In the case of Dilip Patel, it is believed that his disputes with the president of the BJP’s Anand district unit cost him the ticket. Another contender for the ticket was former minister Rohit Patel, who was dropped in the 2017 Gujarat assembly polls. Mitesh Patel had sought a ticket for the 2009 and 2014 polls. He is the treasurer of the party’s Anand district unit.

In Chhota Udepur, internal squabbles resulted in Geeta Rathwa, a little-known face, getting the ticket. The conflicts between the sitting MP Ramsinh Rathwa and other local leaders — Jasu Rathwa and Jayanti Rathwa — came to the fore recently when the two wrote to chief minister Vijay Rupani asking him to reconsider Ramsinh Rathwa’s candidature. Jasu Rathwa and Jayanti Rathwa were in the fray for the ticket. Party sources said that by giving tickets to new faces, the party has tried to quash internal conflicts that could have posed problems in winning the seats.

Despite speculation that Junagadh MP Rajesh Chudasama will be dropped, the BJP re-nominated him. Chudasama will contest against Punja Vansh of the Congress. Vansh is the Congress MLA from Una. The candidates of both parties are from the Koli community. Former minister Jasha Barad, who lost the 2017 assembly election, has been given the Talala assembly bypoll ticket by the BJP.