Gujarat polls: BJP releases sixth list of 34 candidates, no ticket for Anandiben Patel

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today released the sixth list of 34 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly polls.

Of 34 names, 12 are from the Patidar community. The party has fielded Bhupendrabhai Patel from the Ghatlodia seat. Patel is said to be a close aide of former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel.

At present, Anandiben, who headed the BJP government in Gujarat for more than two years, is the sitting MLA from Ghatlodia and had earlier refused to contest elections citing her age.

Anandiben had joined the BJP in 1987. She handled number of major portfolios from 2007 to 2014, when Narendra Modi was the CM of the state. She was made the CM of Gujarat in May 2014 after Modi resigned from the post to take the charge of the Prime Minister. She headed the government till August 2016 before passing the baton to her successor Vijay Rupani.

All candidates will be filing their nomination papers today itself. According to the Election Commission’s schedule, November 27 is the last date for filing papers for the second phase.

With this list, the BJP has announced the names of all 182 candidates who will be contesting the polls. The party had announced its fifth list of 13 candidates on November 24.

6th list of 34 BJP candidates for ensuing general election to the legislative assembly of Gujarat 2017 finalised by BJP Central Election Committee. https://t.co/t7mt1S4wic pic.twitter.com/IxGydzwaav — BJP (@BJP4India) November 27, 2017

The polling for the two-phase elections in Gujarat, having total 182 seats, will take place on December 9 and 14 and votes will be counted on December 18.

While 89 seats of Saurashtra and South Gujarat region are going to polls in the first phase, the remaining 93 seats including Vadgam in central and northern region would go for polls in the second phase.

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