Sonal Modi, the niece of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was not given a ticket by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Ahmedabad municipal elections. The party refused to give Sonal a ticket citing new rules for candidates. The BJP has released the list of names of its candidates for the upcoming election of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), but Sonal Modi's name is not in it.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi's niece Sonal told reporters that he had sought a ticket from the BJP to contest from Bodakdev ward of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Sonal Modi is the daughter of Prahlad Modi, brother of Prime Minister Modi, who runs a ration shop in the city. Prahlad Modi is also the president of the Gujarat Fair Rate Shop Association.
Rules are equal for all
Sonal has not been made a candidate from Bodakdev or any other ward in the list of candidates released by the BJP late Thursday. When BJP state unit president CR Patil was asked about not giving tickets to Sonal Modi, he replied that the rules were equal for all.
Sonal Modi said, had sought a ticket as a party worker
Let the BJP unit of Gujarat recently announced that relatives of party leaders will not be given tickets in the upcoming elections. However, Sonal Modi claimed that he did not seek the ticket as a BJP worker, being a niece of the Prime Minister.
Elections will be held in these cities
Voting will be held on February 21 for the elections to a total of six municipal corporations, including Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Bhavnagar, and Jamnagar in Gujarat, while votes will be cast on February 28 for 81 municipalities, 31 district panchayats, and 231 taluka panchayats.