Gandhinagar: The main opposition political party, Indian National Congress has declared the final list of its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha general elections in Gujarat.

Ramji Thakor (Palvi) will contest for the Mahesana seat as a Congress candidate, while city unit party chief Himmatsinh Patel will contest the Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha seat. BJP has fielded Haribhai Patel in Mahesana and HS Patel in the Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha seat.

By fielding Thakor in the Mahesana seat, Congress is looking for Thakor votes against BJP’s Patel candidate. In the case of the Ahmedabad East seat, the party had earlier declared the party’s national spokesperson Rohan Gupta as its candidate. However, Gupta expressed an inability to contest and later joined the BJP. Himmatsinh, the former Mayor of Ahmedabad and city party chief, had refused to contest for this seat, but it seems the party has finally convinced him to contest. Himamtsinh is a non-Gujarati person. Ahmedabad East seat has a good number of non-Gujarati people. The party hopes to get its dedicated votes plus the votes from this segment.

Former MLA Paresh Dhanani will contest the Rajkot seat while Naishad Desai will be fielded on the Navsari seat. Dhanani will contest against BJP candidate Parshottam Rupala, who is also the union minister. Once upon a time, a younger Dhanani had defeated Rupala in the State assembly election in Amreli. Dhanani who lost the last assembly election in 2022 hails from Amreli, so as Rupala. The Congress party is hoping to get Leuva Patel community votes by fielding Dhanani against Rupala who is a Kadva Patel. Dhanani had also been the leader of opposition in the State assembly once upon a time.

Navsari candidate Naishadh Desai is a senior Congressman with a soft and friendly nature. He is part of the party’s TV debate team also. Desai will contest against the State BJP chief CR Patil in Navsari. Patil has been winning the Navsari Lok Sabha seat with the highest margins.

The party has also declared its candidates for five seats in assembly polls. Dinesh Tulsibhai Patel will contest from Vijapur. Raju Odedra will contest in Porbandar. Haribhai Kansagra will contest the Manavadar seat. Mahendrasinh Parmar will be the candidate for the Khambhat seat. Kanubhai Gohil will be fielded in the Vaghodia seat. All these four seats are witnessing by-polls because outgoing Congress and independent MLAs resigned to join the BJP.

Polling for the assembly by-polls and Lok Sabha seats will take place on 7th of May. DeshGujarat