Rivaba Jadeja, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja on BJP’s Gujarat Poll List, 38 MLAs dropped

The BJP field­ed Riv­a­ba Jade­ja, the wife of crick­eter Ravin­dra Jade­ja, who joined the par­ty in 2019, from Jam­na­gar North for the Gujarat elec­tions, drop­ping cur­rent law­mak­er Dhar­men­dras­inh M Jade­ja, who is among the 38 MLAs serv­ing as the first list of can­di­dates have been replaced, 160 out of 182. was released today.

Con­gres­sion­al import Hardik Patel of Viram­gram is on the rul­ing par­ty’s list, as are sev­en oth­er lead­ers who com­pet­ed for con­gres­sion­al tick­et last time out.

From Mor­bi, where a bridge col­lapse killed over 130 peo­ple two weeks ago, the par­ty has replaced the incum­bent MLA, choos­ing instead a for­mer MLA who report­ed­ly jumped into the riv­er to res­cue some of the col­lapse victims.

Chief Min­is­ter Bhu­pen­dra Patel will fight from Ghatlodia.

Announc­ing the names in Del­hi, Union Min­is­ter Bhu­pen­dra Yadav said the MLAs had been replaced with their approval.

The list includes 84 of the 89 seats vot­ing in the first phase on Decem­ber 1 and 76 of 93 going to the polls on Decem­ber 5. The results will be released on Decem­ber 8th along with those from Himachal Pradesh.

The BJP, which has ruled Gujarat for 27 years, has failed to nom­i­nate some of its senior lead­ers, many of whom, like for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Vijay Rupani, have announced they would quit of their own accord.

Among the begin­ners is Riv­a­ba Jade­ja, who has been sup­port­ed by vil­lage tours for months, a mechan­i­cal engineer.

She is relat­ed to Con­gress vet­er­an Hari Singh Solan­ki and mar­ried Ravin­dra Jade­ja in 2016. Draw­ing on the fam­i­ly’s Rajput her­itage and for­mer roy­al lin­eage, she was an active politi­cian in the Jam­na­gar-Saurash­tra region.

Among the Con­gres­sion­al imports are sev­en who cam­paigned in the 2017 elec­tion, includ­ing Pradyu­man Jade­ja and Ash­win Kotwal.

Hardik Patel, for­mer work­ing pres­i­dent of the Gujarat Con­gress, was unable to run in 2017 because he was under the age of 25.

The announce­ment of the BJP list came the morn­ing after the meet­ing of the par­ty’s elec­toral body, chaired by par­ty leader JP Nad­da, on Novem­ber 9. Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi, Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Amit Shah and the Defense Min­is­ter were among the participants.

Gujarat, PM Modi and Amit Shah’s home state, where the BJP has been in pow­er for 27 con­sec­u­tive years, is fac­ing a three-way bat­tle this time as the AAP has waged a high-deci­bel cam­paign to become an alter­na­tive to Con­gress and the BJP.