Party ends speculations, repeats Bhatt
TNN | Mar 24, 2019, 04:05 IST
Vadodara: Dispelling all speculations of an outsider or a fresh face being given the ticket for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat, BJP picked up sitting MP and city unit president Ranjan Bhatt as its candidate.
Bhatt had won the seat in the 2014 by-elections defeating Narendra Ravat of the Congress by a handsome margin. Her choice as a candidate then was surprising as many party heavyweights were eyeing the ticket. Bhatt was not a big name in the party at that stage and was the deputy mayor of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC).
Interestingly, Bhatt had started her electoral journey as a rebel. She contested as an independent in the 2000 VMC polls after she was not given a ticket by the BJP. While she won the polls, Neelam Kodnani from the BJP lost out. It is widely believed that some within the BJP too helped Bhatt instead of Kodnani.
Bhatt supported the BJP that did not have a clear majority in the civic body after the polls. In the ‘no repeat’ formula in the 2005 VMC polls, she was dropped along with all the sitting BJP candidates. But later Bhatt was made the deputy chairman of the VMC school education committee.
A higher secondary passout, she was given a VMC ticket in 2010 where she won the polls. Bhatt had joined the BJP in 1992 and was active in the women’s wing of the party. She enjoyed the support of the women party members.
Bhatt had won the seat in the 2014 by-elections defeating Narendra Ravat of the Congress by a handsome margin. Her choice as a candidate then was surprising as many party heavyweights were eyeing the ticket. Bhatt was not a big name in the party at that stage and was the deputy mayor of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC).
Interestingly, Bhatt had started her electoral journey as a rebel. She contested as an independent in the 2000 VMC polls after she was not given a ticket by the BJP. While she won the polls, Neelam Kodnani from the BJP lost out. It is widely believed that some within the BJP too helped Bhatt instead of Kodnani.
Bhatt supported the BJP that did not have a clear majority in the civic body after the polls. In the ‘no repeat’ formula in the 2005 VMC polls, she was dropped along with all the sitting BJP candidates. But later Bhatt was made the deputy chairman of the VMC school education committee.
A higher secondary passout, she was given a VMC ticket in 2010 where she won the polls. Bhatt had joined the BJP in 1992 and was active in the women’s wing of the party. She enjoyed the support of the women party members.
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