Gujarat assembly elections 2017: BJP renominates 60 legislators

Among the 70 candidates, five Congress MLAs who defected just before the Rajya Sabha election in August, have been given tickets.

Sixty legislators have been renominated in the first list of 70 BJP candidates announced on Friday. The list betrays the speculation about the introduction of fresh faces to beat anti-incumbency in the upcoming assembly elections.

Among the 70 candidates, five Congress MLAs who defected just before the Rajya Sabha election in August, have been given tickets.

Chief minister Vijay Rupani and Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani figure in the first list of candidates. The five Congress MLAs who were among the 14 to join the BJP and have been nominated by the BJP are Ramsinh Parmar, chairman of Amul Dairy, Raghavji Patel, Dharmendra Jadeja, Mansinh Chauhan and C.K. Raulji.

Yesterday's announcement was in a departure from the Modi-era practice of declaring the names all 182 candidates.

The Congress is yet to announce its list for the upcoming elections that are expected to be a mother of all electoral battles.

OneIndia News