Vaghela's Jan Vikalp fields 74 candidates

Jan Vikalp, the third front of Congress rebel and former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, will field 69 candidates in the first phase of Assembly elections on December 9.

Bapu, as Shankersinh is called by his supporters, said: "We have decided to field these candidates and they will contest on the 'tractor' symbol allocated to the All India Hindustan Congress Party.

"There are five other candidates who will contest as independents but will be backed by the party. Out of the 89, we will be fielding 74 candidates."

But he said the party won't contest against Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, BJP state President Jitu Vaghani, Amreli Congress MLA Paresh Dhanani and senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil.

Commenting on the Congress pledge to Patidar leader Hardik Patel to give job quotas to the Patel community, Bapu said those talking about granting reservation more than the prescribed 49 per cent in the Constitution were fooling people.

"The reservation can only be brought in through legislative changes and changes in the Constitution. We will be doing that if we form the government," he said.

"I am right now experimenting and I don't know whether it will be successful or not. But our party's candidates won't be getting any money to contest... It shold be people's party without any money coming into it."

Vaghela urged the BJP government in Gujarat to stop the release of the controversial Hindi film 'Padmavati'.

"Many states have done it and we should also do it. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) should also be put on hold for at least a year to sort out the technical glitches."

--IANS

amc/mr/soni