New Delhi: As Gujarat Assembly election dates near, the BJP released its third list of 28 candidates today. While 10 legislators including former minister Saurabh Patel and ex-chief of BJP's Gujarat unit R C Faldu were given tickets, the party dropped as many as 16 sitting MLAs, including three ministers from the list.
Mr Patel will now be contesting from Botad and Mr Faldu is fighting from Jamnagar South.
Jayanti Kavadia (the MLA from Dhrangadhra seat in Surendranagar), Vallabh Vaghasia (Savarkundla seat in Amreli) and Nanu Vanani (Katargam seat in Surat city) are some of the MLAs who have been dropped.
The parliamentary secretary in Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's government, Jetha Solanki, the legislator from Kodinar (SC) seat, was also dropped.
Mr Solanki resigned as the MLA and from all party posts two days ago, alleging that
Dalits faced atrocities under the BJP-led state government.
Sitting MLA from the Jamnagar-South seat, Vasuben Trivedi, who was the women and child development minister when Anandiben Patel was the chief minister from 2014 to 2016, has also been dropped by the BJP this time.
The Gujarat Assembly speaker and BJP's Dalit face in the state, Ramanbhai Vora, who represents Idar (SC) seat of Sabarkantha, has been picked to contest from Dasada (SC) seat of Surendranagar, as the sitting MLA, Punambhai Makwana, has been denied ticket.
Last week, the BJP had declared its candidates for 106 seats. With today's addition of 28, the party has so far announced its nominees for 134 out of the total 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly.
The polling for the two-phase elections in the state will take place on December 9 and 14 and votes will be counted on December 18.
(With inputs from PTI)