Five Congress legislators who had defected to the BJP earlier this year during the Rajya Sabha polls figured among the seven candidates the BJP has named for eight by-elections scheduled for next month.
The BJP is yet to announce its candidate for the Limbadi seat. A total of eight Congress legislators had resigned from the party as well as their membership from the Legislative Assembly to join the BJP. Their resignations from the House necessitated the by-elections in their respective constituencies.
The five defected leaders who have now been fielded by the ruling party are: J.V. Kakadia from Dhari, Brijesh Merja from Morbi, Jitu Chaudhary from the tribal-reserved seat Kaprada, Akshay Patel from Karajan and Pradhyumansinh Jadeja from Abdasa.
From another tribal reserved seat, Dangs, the BJP has fielded its ex-legislator Vijay Patel instead of Congress defector Mangal Gavit, while from SC-reserved Gadhada, former Minister Atmaram Parmar has been fielded instead of former Congress leader Pravin Maru.
In Limbadi, the party is likely to field former Minister Kiritsinh Rana, but Congress defector Somabhai Patel has announced that he would contest the polls irrespective of whether the BJP fields him or not.
The eight legislators had switched over from the Congress in the run up to the Rajya Sabha polls. The BJP’s third candidate had won despite small numbers as the effective strength of the House came down after the resignations of the eight members.
On the Opposition front, State Congress leaders, along with All India Congress Committee in-charge of the State, Rajeev Satav, held a review meeting to screen potential candidates for the eight seats. Party leaders have reportedly prepared a panel of 3 to 4 potential candidates for each seat, and names will be finalised after deliberations with local leaders and cadres.
Both parties have already appointed seat-wise observers and in-charge leaders.
Meanwhile, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there would not be any large scale campaigning through rallies and large meetings. Both parties are going for digital campaigning using social media platforms and holding group meetings of 100-200 people.
The Election Commission and the State government have issued detailed SOPs for campaigning, under which not more than 200 people can gather in a rally or a meeting, while on stage, only seven persons can be seated.
There are 172 members in the 182-member House, of which 103 are from the BJP, 65 from Congress, two from the Bharatiya Tribal Party, one from the NCP and one Independent member. The elections for two other vacant seats of Dwarka and Morva Hadaf have not been announced as matters related to them are sub-judice and pending before the Supreme Court.