Gujarat Elections 2022 | To counter anti-incumbency, BJP drops 38 sitting MLAs; Congress turncoats, Hardik make cut

Aware of the high anti-incumbency factor and the two-sided challenge it is facing from Congress and AAP, the BJP on Thursday denied tickets to as many as 38 sitting MLAs while picking 69 of the incumbent lawmakers in its list of candidates. 

The 38 names dropped by the party included five ministers. Minister of State for Labour and Employment Brijesh Merja, the legislator from Morbi where a bridge collapse incident last month claimed 135 lives, is among those dropped from the list of 160 candidates. 

From the present cabinet, the BJP has denied tickets to state Parliamentary and Legislative Affairs Minister Rajendra Trivedi, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Pradip Parmar, MoS for Labour and Employment Brijesh Merja, MoS for Transport Arvind Raiyani and MoS for Social Justice and Empowerment RC Makwana. Trivedi was stripped of the crucial revenue portfolio a few months back.

The 38 BJP MLAs who have been denied the ticket this time also include former CM Vijay Rupani and seven legislators who were part of his cabinet between 2017 and 2021 as ministers.

Rupani and his entire Council of Ministers were replaced by the BJP in September 2021. A completely new cabinet was later formed under the leadership of CM Bhupendra Patel.

Those from the previous cabinet who have not been considered this time include ex-chief minister Rupani, former deputy CM Nitin Patel and former ministers RC Faldu, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Saurabh Patel, Kaushik Patel, Vasan Ahir and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja.

Rupani and Nitin Patel had on Wednesday night announced they will not fight the next month's Assembly elections.

Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Pradeepsinh Jadeja -- who were ministers in the Rupani cabinet -- had also announced they will not seek tickets for the upcoming polls. 

Meanwhile, a number of former Congress, who joined the BJP after resigning as legislators in the last five years, have been given an opportunity by the ruling party. 

Apart from former Congress working president and prominent Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who quit the opposition party in May this year, several former Congress MLAs who joined the BJP, have been given tickets from the seats from where they had won byelections.

The Congress had won 77 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections. Of these 77 legislators, as many as 20 resigned during the past five years, with three quitting in the last two days alone. A majority of these 20 MLAs had won the byelections necessitated by their resignation and most of them have been given another chance by the BJP to contest the elections to be held on December 1 and 5.

The BJP has given ticket to Rajendrasinh Rathva, son of Congress's senior-most former MLA and tribal leader Mohan Rathva, who had resigned two days before the ruling party announced its list. Patel will contest from Viramgam seat.

Apart from Rathva, the MLAs who resigned this year, including Bhagvan Barad, Harshad Ribadiya, and Ashvin Kotwal, have also been given a chance to contest from their respective seats Talala, Visavadar, and Khedbrahma, as BJP candidates.

The party is yet to decide the fate of Bhavesh Katara, the latest to resign from the Congress, as it has not yet declared the name of candidate on the Jhalod seat which he represented.

Also, the BJP is yet to decide whether prominent OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who had quit the Congress from the Radhanpur seat in 2019 and lost the byelection, will get a chance to contest the upcoming election on its ticket or not as the ruling party is yet to declare the name of candidate from this seat.

Among the MLAs who had quit the Congress (in the last five years) and won the bypolls on the BJP ticket are Kunvarji Bavaliya (Jasdan seat), Jawahar Chavda (Manavadar), Jitu Chaudhary (Kaprada), Akshay Patel (Karjan), J V Kakadiya (Dhari), and Pradyumnasinh Jadeja (Abdasa).

Bavaliya had resigned in July 2018 and became the first Congress MLA to quit after the 2017 elections. The prominent Koli leader went on to win from his stronghold Jasdan and was made a cabinet minister.

Jitu Chaudhary, an MLA from Scheduled Tribe-reserved seat of Kaprada, who was made the Minister of State for Fisheries and Kalpsar after winning the byelection, is among the Congress turncoat MLAs who have been repeated by the BJP.

The saffron party, however, decided not to give another chance to Brijesh Merja, a former Congress MLA who had resigned in March 2020 ahead of the Rajya Sabha election, and won the Morbi byelection. On October 30, as many as 135 people lost their lives in the Morbi suspension bridge collapse tragedy that occurred in his constituency.

The BJP has also not given a chance to Dhrangadhra MLA Parshottam Sabariya. He had resigned as a Congress legislator in March 2019 and went on to win the byelection as a BJP candidate. But this time, the BJP has fielded Prakash Varmora from this seat.

The BJP also decided not to give another chance to former Bayad MLA Dhavalsinh Zala, who had resigned along with the then Radhanpur Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor. Both Zala and Thakor had resigned in June 2019, and both of them lost to Congress candidates in the byelection that followed. Thakor's fate is yet to be decided by the BJP.

(With PTI inputs)