BJP Fields Former Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor in Gujarat Bypoll

Thakor was elected on a Congress ticket in 2017 and resigned as MLA to join the BJP.

Alpesh Thakor

(Photo: Twitter/@AlpeshThakor_)

Former Congress MLAs, including Alpesh Thakor, were on Sunday, 29 September, named by the BJP as its candidates for bypolls in Gujarat as it announced names of its 38 nominees for assembly by-elections to be held across several states on 21 October.

Thakor, who was elected on a Congress ticket in 2017 and resigned as MLA to join the BJP, will contest from Radhanpur, the seat he had won. Another Congress defector, Dhavalsinh Narendrasinh Zala, will contest from Bayad on BJP ticket.

Other candidates from the BJP for the Gujarat Assembly bypolls include Jivraj Patel from Tharad, Ajmal Thakor from Kheralu, Jagdish Patel from Amraiwadi and Jignesh Sevak from Lunawada.

The central election committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finalised the names, it said in a statement.

The Congress declared four candidates for the Gujarat Assembly bypolls- Gulabsinh Rajput Tharad, Jasubhai Patel from Bayad, Dharmendra Patel from Amraiwadi and Gulabsinh Chauhan from Lunawada. The party is yet to declare candidates for Kheralu and Radhanpur.

Of the 38 Assembly seats, 10 are in Uttar Pradesh, six in Gujarat, five in Kerala, four in Assam, two each in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Sikkim and one each in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.

Bypolls will be held for 51 Assembly seats on 21 October, along with the state elections in Haryana and Maharashtra. The BJP is likely to name the candidates for the remaining seats soon, it said.