In BJP’s Gujarat LS list, 5 sitting MPs dropped; Shah, 6 others fight from same seats

In its first list for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the BJP dropped five sitting MPs as it announced candidates for 15 of 26 seats in Gujarat on Saturday. While Union Home & Cooperation Minister Amit Shah will yet again contest from Gandhinagar, Parshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya are other Union ministers who will be the party’s Lok Sabha candidates.

Among the noteworthy names in the list are those for the seats of Porbandar, Rajkot, Banaskantha, and Ahmedabad West (reserved for the Scheduled Caste communities). The party has nominated Parshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya from Porbandar and Rajkot seats, respectively. Both Rupala and Mandaviya are currently Rajya Sabha members and the party has chosen them for the Lok Sabha contest while dropping sitting MPs Ramesh Dhaduk and Mohan Kundariya.

Apart from Amit Shah, other party leaders who will fight from the same constituencies are Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil (Navsari), Union Minister of State for Communications and party MP from Kheda Devusinh Chauhan (Kheda), Poonam Madam (Jamnagar), Vinod Chavda (Kutch), Bharat Dabhi (Patan), Mitesh Patel (Anand), Jaswantsinh Bhabhor (Dahod), and Prabhu Vasava (Bardoli).

Among the new faces on the list are Dinesh Makwana from Ahmedabad West and Rekha Chaudhary from Banaskantha. Makwana is the spokesperson of the Ahmedabad city unit of BJP and also a former deputy mayor of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). He replaces incumbent BJP MP Kirit Solanki.

Rekha Chaudhary, on the other hand, has been fielded from Banaskantha and is the granddaughter of Galba Chaudhary, the founder of Banas Dairy. She has previously been a convenor of the party’s Women’s Development Cell. Chaudhary belongs to the Anjana Chaudhary community that falls