Apart from chalking out the strategy for the assembly constituencies falling within the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, from where he is the MP, Shah also had to deal with the discontent within the party in a series of close-door meetings.
As of press time, Shah had called Rajendra Trivedi, the BJP MLA who was denied a ticket from Raopura in Vadodara, for discussion. Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya and chief minister Bhupendra Patel also reached Kamalam in the wake of this exercise.
Earlier, the BJP had delegated Gujarat MoS Home and Majura MLA from Surat, Harsh Sanghvi, for damage-control in Central Gujarat. Sanghvi’s efforts to pacify rebels like six-time MLA from Waghodia Madhu Shrivastava, former MLA from Padra in Vadodara, Dinesh Patel, and former Karjan MLA Satish Nishaliya, did not yield any result as the “rebel MLAs didn’t even attend the meeting called by him”.
The two-term MLA from Matar, Kesrisinh Solanki, who had resigned from the party and joined AAP had, after being dropped, returned to the party fold within less than forty-eight hours. Sources maintain that Solanki’s return to BJP was scripted by Union Minister and local MLA Debusinh Chauhan.
While muscleman from Waghodia in Central Gujarat and six-term BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastava has already resigned from the party and announced his decision to contest the election independently, two other BJP MLAs from Vadodara are likely to follow suit. A similar situation is seen in Keshod in Saurashtra where former MLA Arvind Ladani has resigned from the party and announced that he would contest as an independent candidate.
Similarly, workers have been protesting against the dropping of Zankhana Patel from Choryasi constituency. Patel had won in 2017 with a margin of 1,10,819 votes, second only to that of chief minister Bhupendra Patel, whose winning margin was 1,17,750 votes in Ghatlodia constituency in Ahmedabad.
Demands to change the candidates are also being raised in several seats of Saurashtra. Meanwhile, Jigna Pandya, who was fielded by the party from Vadvan has written a letter seeking that someone else be given a chance in her place to contest the election.
On Saturday, party workers from Vijapur in North Gujarat flocked to Kamalam to register their anger after the party allowed Raman Patel to contest again.
DISCONTENT IN CONGRESS
Meanwhile, the Congress is also facing its share of discontent. The party had to change its candidate in Botad constituency after senior leader Manhar Patel went public with his displeasure. Congress had fielded Ramesh Mer from Botad.
However, on Sunday evening, Congress replaced Mer with Patel after he had met Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot regarding the issue. Similarly, the party is also facing discontent from workers in Saurashtra as senior leader and chairman of the farmers’ cell of the party Pal Ambalia did not find his name in the candidate list of the Congress. He was expecting to be fielded from Dwarka.
For all the latest world News Click Here
