BJP fields Shardaben Patel from Mehsana, repeats Surat MP

Laying to rest speculations about its candidate for Mehsana Lok Sabha seat, the BJP announced that Shardaben Patel, wife of former minister Late Anil Patel, would be its nominee from the crucial seat. The party also repeated its Surat MP Darshana Jardosh.

Shardaben replaces MP Jayshreeben Patel, who had won in 2009 and 2014, as the BJP candidate in the Patidar dominated seat. Her husband Anil Patel, who was industries minister, and also founder president of Ganpat University, had succumbed to cancer in August.

The announcement of Shardaben Patel as the BJP candidate also comes as a huge relief for deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, who was said to be under tremendous pressure to contest from Mehsana.

After much delay, the BJP also repeated Darshana Jardosh as its candidate from Surat seat. There were speculations that the two-term MP would be dropped in favour of another candidate, but the BJP decided to stick with her.

With this, BJP has fielded women candidates in six out of 25 Gujarat seats for which it has announced candidates so far. The other women fielded by BJP are Bharti Shiyal from Bhavnagar, Poonam Madam from Jamnagar, Ranjanben Bhatt from Vadodara, and Geeta Rathwa from Chhota Udepur.

The BJP is yet to announce candidate for Ahmedabad East seat. Actor and sitting MP Paresh Rawal had recently said that he would not be contesting in the polls.