Wednesday, Nov 20, 2002
Wednesday, Nov 20, 2002 |
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By Our Special Correspondent
For several weeks now there was speculation that Mr. Modi was looking for a seat "safer" than Rajkot-II, in the heart of Saurashtra and where the influence of the former Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, was too strong for comfort. Moreover, the man who had given up the Rajkot-II constituency wanted it back. It was also announced that the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, would campaign in the State along with other party heavyweights — the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, and several Ministers, including Jaswant Singh, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharti. The BJP central election committee today released the first list of 144 candidates for the Gujarat elections. The names of the remaining 38 candidates are being discussed by the State election committee and will be later finalised by the party president, Venkaiah Naidu. The party's west zone in-charge and general secretary, Arun Jaitley, has gone to Gandhinagar to oversee the process. Thirty Ministers in the Modi Government have been included in the first list. All but two have been asked to contest from their own constituencies, the exceptions being Mr. Modi and Anandiben Patel, who has been moved from Mandal to Patan. A former Minister, Vajubhai Vala, who had vacated the Rajkot-II seat for Mr. Modi, will contest the elections from that constituency. The former Chief Minister, Suresh Mehta, will contest the Mandvi seat in Kutch. Some Ministers who figure in the list are: Gordhanbhai Zadafia (Rakhial), Ashokbhai Bhatt (Khadia), Narottambhai Patel (Choryasi), Daulatbhai Desai (Valsad), Bhupendra Lakhawala (Baroda city) and Purshotambhai Solanki (Ghogha). The MLA from Naroda, Mayaben Kodnani, which witnessed the worst massacres following the Godhra train carnage, has been renominated. At one time, Mr. Modi was eyeing this constituency. The party general secretary, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, said 82 MLAs of the recently-dissolved House had been given the party ticket and 12 had been denied re-nomination. An `adivasi' woman, Ramilaben Bara, one among the seven women to be nominated, will be the candidate from Khedbhramha, where she will be pitted against the Congress strongman, Amarsinh Chaudhary. Just under 20 persons from the `Patel' community figure in the first list, and by no means have their strongholds been exhausted. In fact, the constituency of Keshubhai Patel, now a Rajya Sabha member, does not figure in the list.
Haren Pandya left out
UNI, PTI report: The list did not include the name of the controversial former State Home Minister, Haren Pandya, who was removed from the Council of Ministers following alleged differences with Mr. Modi. Mr. Naqvi clarified that Mr. Modi would be contesting only from one seat. "There is no special reason for changing Mr. Modi's constituency... The decision was taken the by party's State leadership." He claimed that Mr. Modi would have won from any constituency in the State and denied any differences among leaders of the State election committee over the selection of the candidates.
Beeline for Maninagar
With the BJP fielding Mr. Modi from Maninagar, a number of Congress aspirants are keen to contest from the seat. The Gujarat Congress general secretary, Ashok Punjabi, faxed a letter to the party high command expressing "willingness" to contest from the same constituency, party sources said in Ahmedabad. The Maninagar seat had been offered to Mr. Modi by the BJP MLA, Kamlesh Patel, who is also the State Transport Chairman, the State BJP chief, Rajendrasinh Rana, said. In the 1998 Assembly election, Mr. Patel had won the seat defeating Vijay Kella of the Congress by a margin of over 39,000 votes. The Congress has, however, not yet announced the candidate for the Maninagar seat, according to party sources.
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