Gujarat elections: BJP candidate from Jamnagar Rural- Raghvjibhai Patel

Raghvjibhai Patel from Bharatiya Janata Party has filed nomination papers from Jamnagar rural in the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections 2017.

Raghavji Patel, who resigned from the Gujarat Assembly after being expelled from the Congress for voting against Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha elections recently, returned to the BJP after more than 20 years.

Patel, an influential Patidar leader and former MLA from Jamnagar (Rural), was welcomed to BJP by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and the party's state unit chief Jitu Vaghani.

After losing his first Assembly election in 1985 on a Congress ticket, Patel had joined BJP and successfully contested the 1990 Assembly elections from Kalavad seat. He was again elected on a BJP ticket in 1995 and served as rural housing development minister in Suresh Mehta government in 1995-96. He, however, later joined the rebel group of Shankersinh Vaghela, who floated the Rashtriya Janta Party in 1996, but when RJP lost the subsequent election, Patel joined Congress in 1999.

Raghavji has been largely credited for Congress's win in the 2015 panchayat polls when the Patidar agitation leaders had extended support to Congress.

OneIndia News