BJP in a quandary over selection of candidate, waits for Congress' candidate to come first
The caste equation over Ahmedabad East was never an issue for BJP till 2014 polls as the seat is believed to be sure for the party. However, the situation seems tough for the ruling party as they are struggling to decide from which community their candidate should be fielded against the Congress.
In the 2014 polls, Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal made his debut in politics through this seat only and he was elected from here during the Modi wave undisputedly, despite him not having the local base here. However, the same wave seems missing this time. The BJP leaders are forced to do the rigorous brain churning to select a candidate from this seat.
The names of front runners for this seat belong to different communities. Those in race are convener of Vishv Umiya Foundation CK Patel, Bollywood actor Manoj Joshi, BJP MLA Jagdish Panchal, and local leaders from Ahmedabad city like Jagdish Patel and Asit Vora. Sources said these too are based on the caste equation again.
A senior BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity, "There is no committed vote bank this time after 2014. A huge chunk of BJP voters have further divided into communities and therefore we are looking for the face that is acceptable to all."
"We have therefore decided to wait for Congress' candidate to come out first. We will field our candidate accordingly. We prefer the local persons who can remain among the masses after being elected, but the ultimate choice is the prerogative of the party high command," the leader added.
Looking at the pattern of caste combination for this particular seat, there are seven assembly seats that fall under the Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha constituency. Dahegam and Gandhinagar South seats have rural base and dominance of Thakor voters followed by the Kshatriya community. The Vatva, Nikol, Naroda, Thakkarbapa Nagar and Bapunagar assembly seats are in Ahmedabad city and here, there are almost equal number of voters from Patel, Schedule Caste and Non-Gujarati votes. Besides this, the population of Muslim, Sindhi and OBC communities is also in considerable number.
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A senior BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity, "There is no committed vote bank this time after 2014. A huge chunk of BJP voters have further divided into communities and therefore we are looking for the face that is acceptable to all."
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