New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday dropped 13 sitting MLAs in the party’s first list of 75 candidates for the Gujarat Assembly elections in December.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi will again contest from the Maninagar constituency. The BJP had won 57 of these 75 seats in the 2002 polls for the 182-member Assembly.
BJP spokesman Ananth Kumar said the party decided to field 20 new faces in the coming polls. Out of this, two had voluntarily opted out while five had left the party. The remaining 13 were not given tickets due to anti-incumbency factor working against them, he added.
"The 20 new candidates will infuse fresh blood and augurs well for the party. We have considered their chances of victory and their popularity among our cadre," he said.
"Last time, we had fielded 12 candidates out of the 182 seats but this time we have already announced 13 out of the 74 seats," Kumar said. The list also includes 13 women, six Scheduled Caste and 17 Scheduled Tribe candidates.
The 14 districts in South Gujarat (29), Saurashtra (52) and Kutch (6) are going for the polls during the first phase of polls and the saffron party have given tickets to all the ten ministers from the region.
The central election committee meeting was chaired by BJP President Rajnath Singh and attended by senior party leaders L K Advani, Jaswant Singh, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu and
Modi besides others.
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