On Penultimate day for nominations in Gujarat:10 from Congress including Chhotu Vasava, Solanki, Dhanani and 4 from BJP file papers

Gandhinagar:Ten senior leaders of Congress in Gujarat including its former state president and ex-union minister Bharatsinh Solanki and Leader of Opposition in assembly Paresh Dhanani today filed nomination papers as official party candidates for Lok sabha election to be held on all the 26 seats of the western state on April 23.

4 official BJP candidates also filed nominations today on the sixth and penultimate day for the same.

Supremo of Bhartiya Tribal Party and one of the two sitting MLAs of the party in Gujarat, Chhotu Vasava after a massive car rally also filed papers on Bharuch seat. His party had contested assembly polls in alliance with Congress in 2017 but so far no such arrangement has been announced officially for LS polls.

All of them participated in rallies and road shows before filing of nomination papers.

Solanki who was son of former CM Madhavsinh Solanki and was twice the union minister during UPA regime today filed his nomination for Anand seat.

Later talking to newsmen he claimed that ruling BJP won’t be able to win even a single seat in central Gujarat.

LoP Dhanani, who also was Congress MLA on Amreli assembly seat and was a last minute choice for Amreli LS seat due to alleged factionalism in the party, also filed his papers today. Later talking to newsmen, he claimed that his party would win all the 26 seats in the state.

Dhoraji MLA Lalit Vasoya filed papers as Congress candidate on Porbandar seat. New party entrant and former PAAS convener Hardik Patel was also present on the occasion. Former state president Arjun Modhwadiya was also present.

Another Congress MLA (Tankara) Lalit Kagathara filed papers on prestigious Rajkot seat. He claimed that he would win with a margin of more than 2.5 lakhs.

Among other Congress candidates filing papers today were V K Khant from Panchmahal, Dharmesh Patel from Navsari, Raju Parmar from Ahmedabad-West seat, Soma Patel from Surendranagar, Jeetu Chaudhri from Valsad and A J Patel from Mahesana seat. Patel however could not provide party mandate today and would be doing so tomorrow. A controversy had also erupted when more than allowed number of people entered the returning officer’s chamber with Patel.

From ruling BJP, party candidate Prabhu Vasava filed papers on Bardoli seat. CM Vijay Rupani was also present on the occasion.

BJP’s Rajesh Chudasama filed papers on his seat Junagadh in presence of union minister Mansukh Mandaviya. Another party candidate Gita Rathwa filed papers on Chhota Udepur seat in presence of state party president Jeetu Vaghani while Bharat Dabhi filed papers on Patan seat in presence of DyCM Nitin Patel.

The last date for filing of nominations which begun on March 28 after issuance of notification is April 4, while scrutiny of nominations will be held on April 5.

The last date for withdrawal of candidature is April 8.

Voting will be held on April 23 while counting of votes will be done on May 23.

Apart from 26 loksabha seats by poll on four seats Unjha, Jamnagar Rural, Dhrangadhra, Manavadar (due to resignation of Congress MLAs) would also be held on the same day and nomination for these seats would also be done as per the same schedule.

Around 4.47 crore voters of whom 2.14 crore were female ,can exercise their franchise on 51851 polling station across the 26 constituencies.

The number of polling booths have increased by 6458 in comparison to the last general election in 2014.

All the 26 seats were won by BJP in the last election.