Gujarat is heading to the polls next month. The election will be held in two phases on December 1 and December 5. Of the 182 seats in the state's legislative assembly, 89 seats will go to polls in the first phase. Around 788 candidates from the Indian National Congress (INC), the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), Aam Admi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) will be battling for these seats in the western state.
Here are some of the key candidates that will be contesting in the first phase of the elections in Gujarat.
BJP's Kantilal Amrutiya had lost the 2017 election. Recently, when the five-time former MLA jumped into the river to save people during the Morbi Bridge tragedy, he once again came to the limelight. The ‘Hero of Morbi’ is hoping to win as Congressman-turned-BJP leader Brijesh Merja had won by a margin of 4 percent in the 2020 bypolls.
The Congress leader is contesting from the Porbandar seat against Mer community leader Babu Bokhiria, who has won the seat for the BJP for 10 years straight.
Patidar leader Hardik Patel is contesting from Viramgar in the Ahmedabad district. Patel will try to hand a victory to the BJP by defeating Lakhabhai Bharwad of the Congress and Kuvarji Thakor of AAP. Congress had managed to secure a safe victory in 2017.
Alpesh Kathiriya was a former close aid of Hardik Patel. He is facing sedition charges for inciting violence during the Patel-led quota protests. Now as an AAP leader, Kathiriya is fighting the election from the Varachha Road (Surat) seat where he will take on incumbent and ex-minister Kishorbhai Kanani and Congress’ Prafulbhai Chhaganbhai Togadiya.
AAP’s chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi is fighting from Khambhalia where he is up against incumbent Vikram Arjanbhai of the Congress. The BJP has given the ticket to Mulubhai Bera.
Rivaba Jadeja, the wife of Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, has been fielded by the BJP in the Jadeja community-dominated Jamnagar North seat despite no political experience. The first-time politician will take on Congress’ Bipendrasinh Jadeja and Karsanbhai Karmur of the AAP.
Controversial young leader Gopal Italia of AAP will be contesting in the Patidar-dominated Katargam seat. Despite the anti-BJP sentiment in 2017, the BJP had managed to hold onto the seat by a huge margin.
