Cricketer Jadeja’s wife, 2002 convict’s daughter on BJP list

AHMEDABAD: Cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba, the doctor daughter of one of the men held guilty of the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre, and two deputy mayors are among 14 women on the BJP’s first list of candidates for the Gujarat assembly elections.
The youngest of them is Dr Payal Kukrani, 30, an anaesthetist, who has been given the ticket for the Naroda assembly seat in Ahmedabad city. Her father has been sentenced to life for the massacre in Naroda Patiya.
The decision triggered sharp reactions as BJP workers and supporters of Balram Thawani, the outgoing MLA, protested by closing shops and establishments in Kubernagar.
Kukrani is posted in the civil hospital, lives in Kubernagar, and is married to a man from outside the Sindhi community. Her mother, Reshma Kukrani, is a BJP councillor for the Kubernagar ward.
This is the third time a doctor has been given the BJP ticket for Naroda. Former ministers Maya Kodnani and Nirmala Wadhwani were also doctors.
The high-profile cricketer’s wife Rivaba Jadeja, 32, will be making her poll debut from the Jamnagar North seat, replacing Dharmendrasinh ‘Hakubha’ Jadeja, who had won it in 2012 as a Congress candidate and then in 2017 with BJP.