BJP unseats three 2014 winners for winnability

GANDHINAGAR: After repeating 15 candidates for the 2019 Lok Sabha battle in Gujarat, the BJP took a calculated risk by replacing three MPs on contentious seats, on Wednesday. Those axed by the BJP are Union minister of state for coal and mines Haribhai Chaudhary (Banaskantha); Saurashtra strongman Vitthal Radadiya (Porbandar); and Prabhatsinh Chauhan (Panchmahal).Sitting BJP Tharad MLA Parbat Patel has been nominated by the BJP for the Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat. Gondal industrialist Ramesh Dhaduk has been named for the Porbandar seat. Congress rebel and independent MLA from Lunawada, Ratansinh Rathod, will be the party’s candidate on the Panchmahal seat. The Congress is yet to announce candidates for these three constituencies.Chaudhary has apparently been denied a ticket because his name had cropped up in a case of corruption. The CBI has carried out an inquiry against him. Chaudhary accepted his exclusion with grace, saying that he would work to ensure the BJP’s victory on the seat. Parbat Patel, meanwhile, has grown in stature and is expected to neutralize anti-incumbency on the seat. He was chosen over Shankar Chaudhary who lost the 2017 assembly election, sources said. The Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat is considered one of the most challenging for the BJP; it lost five of the seven assembly seats to the Congress in 2017 in this constituency. After the ailing Radadiya declared he would not contest the election, his son and minister of state in the Vijay Rupani government, Jayesh Radadiya, had demanded that the Porbandar ticket be given to a member of his family. The BJP leadership chose not to blink and nominated Gondal Agricultural Produce Market Committee president Dhaduk. Dhaduk, a Leuva Patel, is close to party president Amit Shah and to Rupani. Jayesh Radadiya had initially vented his displeasure at the circumstances on Facebook. But later he declared he had no objection to Dhaduk being fielded from Porbandar. As for the newly nominated Panchmahal contender, Ratansinh Rathod, he had rebelled against the Congress after being denied a ticket and fought and won the 2017 assembly election as an independent. He later supported the Rupani government. Rathod is likely to face opposition from Prabhatsinh Chauhan and the Congress turncoat C K Raulji, both of whom were vying for the ticket.