Thackeray, senior Badal to join Shah during nomination

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and several Union Ministers including Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari will be present when BJP chief Amit Shah will file his nomination on Saturday from Gandhinagar, said a senior Gujarat BJP leader on Friday.

Party veteran L.K. Advani will, however, not be present on the occasion.

The mega event, seen as a show of strength of Shah, would begin with a road show from Naranpura before filing of the nomination.

"Apart from Thackeray and Badal, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Ram Vilas Paswan will also attend Shah's road show tomorrow," Vaghani told reporters in Ahmedabad.

Sharing the details about the event, he said the four-km road show would start from Sardar Patel Statue in Naranpura area of Ahmedabad and culminate at Patidar Chowk in Ghatlodia.

All the leaders invited for the nomination are likely to accompany Shah during his road show in Ahmedabad.

Advani, a founding member of the BJP and an eleven-time MP, who is credited with a significant role in strengthening the party's political base, will not be present during the mega event, party sources said.

Shah has replaced Advani as BJP candidate from Gandhinagar -- the seat represented by the party veteran for six terms. He had won the seat for the first time in 1991 by defeating G.I. Patel of Congress by a margin of over 1.25 lakh votes.

He had been representing the constituency continuously since 1998 before being elected to the Rajya Sabha for four terms.

Shah, who is a Rajya Sabha member, will be contesting his first Lok Sabha election.

Last date for filing nominations is April 4. Polling for all the 26 seats of Gujarat will take place on April 23.

--IANS

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