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Tribal leader, one woman among seven candidates fielded by Congress in Gujarat
Of the total 26 seats, Congress will field candidates for 24 seats in Gujarat, as it has allocated Bharuch and Bhavnagar Lok Sabha seats to the Aam Aadmi Party as per the pre-poll alliance
Ahmedabad: The Congress on Tuesday announced its second list of 43 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. In Gujarat, the party has fielded seven candidates against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The list includes a mix of senior leaders and fresh faces.
Geniben Thakor, a two-time MLA from the Vaav constituency, has been fielded from the Banaskantha constituency. She has been a vocal critic of the BJP in Gujarat and had won against BJP’s Shankar Chaudhary, a prominent OBC leader and chairperson of Banas Diary from the Vaav constituency in the 2017 state assembly elections.
Tribal leader and incumbent MLA Anant Patel has been fielded from the Valsad constituency, reserved for ST candidates. The 44-year-old leader was at the forefront of an uprising of the tribals in 2022 following which the Centre decided to halt the Par-Tapi-Narmada (PTN) river-linking project a few months later to avoid the displacement of tribals from their ancestral land in the project affected region.
Former MLA Lalit Vasoya has been fielded from the Porbandar constituency where he will contest against Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya, a two-time Rajya Sabha member. Former MLA Bharat Makwana will contest from the Ahmedabad (west) seat which is reserved for SC candidates.
The party has fielded Rohan Gupta, the party’s national spokesperson, from the Ahmedabad East constituency. Gupta was earlier the chairperson of the social media department of the party.
“All the seven candidates have a strong bond with the party and will strongly fight the BJP candidates to win these seats,” said Manish Doshi, Gujarat Congress spokesperson.
Of the total 26 seats, Congress will field candidates for 24 seats in Gujarat, as it has allocated Bharuch and Bhavnagar Lok Sabha seats to the Aam Aadmi Party as per the pre-poll alliance.
Siddharth Chaudhary has been fielded on the ST seat of Bardoli.
Nishitbhai Lalan, president of the Youth Congress in Kutch, has been fielded for the Kutch Lok Sabha constituency.
Earlier on Tuesday, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Bharatsinh Solanki announced via social media his decision to refrain from participating in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“My family and I have been given a lot by the Congress party over the decades. Considering my current responsibility as AICC in-charge Jammu & Kashmir and to be able to effectively campaign for the party in Gujarat, I humbly convey to the high command of my wish not to contest this election,” the former Lok Sabha member said on X.
The 70-year-old former Gujarat Congress president, however, also said he will accept whatever decision is taken by the party leadership.
