BJP goes safe in Gujarat, repeats 15 sitting MPs

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released its second list of Lok Sabha candidates from Gujarat, containing 15 candidates - all sitting MPs,

In the first list, announced on Thursday, party President Amit Shah's candidature was announced for the Gandhinagar seat, replacing veteran leader L.K. Advani, who had held the seat since 1998.

In the second list, Vinod Chavda has been repeated from the Kutch constituency while Deepsinh Rathod has been continued for the Sabarkantha constituency and Kirit Solanki for the Ahmedabad West (reserved) constituency.

For the Surendranagar constituency in Saurashtra region, the party has once again gone with the sitting member Mahendra Munjpara whereas for Rajkot. Mohan Kundariya has been repeated.

Poonamben Madam has been repeated for the Jamnagar constituency while for the another Saurashtra seat of Amreli, Narayanbhai Kachidiya has been fielded again. For yet another Saurashtra seat of Bhavnagar, Dr Bhartiben Shiyal has been selected for the second time.

Devsinh Chauhan has been selected again for the Kheda seat and Jaswantsinh Bhabhor for the Dahod seat.

For the Vadodara seat, the saffron party has once again decided to go with Ranjanben Bhatt who had won the bypolls held after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had vacated the Vadodara seat while retaining Varanasi.

For the Bharuch seat, Mansukhbhai Vasava has been repeated while another Vasava, Prabhubhai has been repeated for the Bardoli seat.

K.C. Patel has been repeated for the Valsad seat. Despite speculation that sitting MP C.R. Patil will be dropped after complaints of corruption, the BJP has chosen to repeat him from the Navsari seat in south Gujarat.

--IANS

desai/vd