Gujarat Local body elections: Cong releases first list of 142 candidates

The Congress on Monday released its first list of 142 candidates for various wards in five municipal corporations, except Ahmedabad, for the local body polls scheduled to be held later this month.

Among the 142 candidates, the Congress has declared the names of 52 contestants for Surat civic body, 20 for Vadodara, 22 for Rajkot, 27 for Jamnagar, and 21 for Bhavnagar civic bodies.

Jayrajsinh Parmar, spokesperson for the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) told The Indian Express, “Today we have declared the first list of candidates for five Mahanagarpalika (Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot) elections. We have declared candidates for selected wards of the five cities after discussions at the ward committee level. Priority is to young candidates and very few of them above the age of 55 have made it to the list. The names have been prepared after due consideration of regional, social and caste realities.”

Elections to six municipal corporations will be held on February 21 and that for municipalities, district panchayats and taluka panchayats on February 28. Results will be declared on February 23 for the first phase and on March 2 for the second phase.

In Surat, the party has repeated nine candidates in the wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 17, and 20, partially covering the Patidar-dominated areas.

Party’s Surat unit president Babu Rayka said, “The first list has been declared and we are satisfied with the names of candidates.” In the previous term, the Surat Municipal Corporation had 29 wards with 116 seats — the Congress had 36 councillors while BJP had 80. Following delimitation, it now has 30 wards with 120 councillors.

Saurashtra: 26 repeats

In the three municipal corporations – Rajkot, Jamnagar, and Bhavnagar – going to polls in Saurashtra, the Congress has repeated a total of 26 sitting corporators while allotting a party ticket to Daksha Bhesania, a BJP turncoat, in Rajkot Municipal Corporation. Bhesania, a sitting BJP corporator had defected to Congress in September last year.

Of the 22 candidates announced for RMC, 12 are sitting corporators, including Urvashiba Jadeja, whose husband Kanaksinh and other family members were arrested by the police last month in an alleged land grabbing case. Former deputy mayor and sitting corporator Bharat Makwana also got party mandate to contest the civic body polls one more time.

Rachna Nandaniya is among the 10 sitting BJP corporators whose names figured on the list of 27 candidates announced for Jamnagar civic body.

In Bhavnagar, Bharat Budheliya, a seven-time corporator is among the four sitting Congress candidates in the list.