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The dates for the 2019 elections are out, and among major national parties, the Congress was the first to declare its list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls. Of the 15 names mentioned in the list, 11 seats are from Uttar Pradesh and four are from Gujarat.
Former Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki will contest from Anand, Raju Parmar from Ahmedabad West (SC), Prashant Patel from Vadodara, and Ranjit Mohansinh Rathwa from Chotta Udaipur (ST).
The Congress may have been quick, but its state of affairs in Gujarat is abysmal to say the least.
With the party’s strength wilting thanks to relentless poaching of MLAs by the saffron party, The Quint looks at the four names declared by the Congress in its first list.
The most prominent name from the list is that of former Gujarat Congress President Bharatsinh Solanki. Solanki was at the helm of affairs during the 2017 Assembly elections, where the Congress performed quite well, securing 77 seats.
After the elections were done and dusted, Solanki relinquished his post as state party president in March 2018 and handed over the reins to his nephew Amit Chavda who is a four-time MLA from Ankalav constituency in Anand.
However, this time the Modi wave is waning in Anand, especially in the backdrop of the contentious bullet train project and rising farmers woes. To top it off, his nephew Chavda has a strong base in the district which will reap huge benefits for Solanki.
Senior Congress leader Raju Parmar who was elected to the Rajya Sabha thrice (1988, 1994 and 2000) will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Ahmedabad West Constituency. Parmar had held key positions in different committees of the Parliament and he headed the National Commission for Schedule Castes during the UPA regime.
The Ahmedabad (west) constituency is reserved for Scheduled Castes and was won by BJP’s Kirit Solanki twice in a row (2009 and 2014). With the BJP looking to strengthen its urban vote base in Gujarat, Parmar is staring at an uphill battle to make his debut in the Lok Sabha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Vadodara in Gujarat. Modi won both the seats in emphatic fashion and in Vadodara he defeated seasoned Congressman Madhusudan Mistry.
This time the Congress has fielded former Vadodara district Congress president Prashant Patel. Patel will likely take on the incumbent Ranjanaben Bhatt, who won the bypoll after Modi relinquished the seat in favour of Varanasi.
Meanwhile Ranjitsinh Rathwa is making his debut in parliamentary politics. The former president of Vadodara district panchayat will contest the elections from Chotta Udepur which is reserved for Scheduled Tribes.
Although the seat was won by Ramsinh Rathwa from the BJP twice in a row, Ranjitsinh Rathwa relies on his father Mohansinh Rathwa’s clout as the latter had won consecutive Assembly elections from the seat from 1972, albeit he did not win in 2002.
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