New Delhi:
The Congress on Wednesday six more candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat. The party has fielded Paresh Dhanani, the Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, from Amreli Lok Sabha constituency.
After having long discussions in the screening committee meetings, the party high command finally coaxed the reluctant Dhanani to contest from the seat in Saurashtra region for which many people were lobbying.
Senior Congress leader and sitting MLA, Virji Thummar had been pushing for a ticket from Amreli for his daughter Jenny. The other strong contenders were Suresh Kotadia and J V Kakadiya.
Other than Dhanani, the party has fielded Bimal Shah from Kheda Lok Sabha constituency. Kheda had left the BJP and joined the Congress earlier this year.
Rajendra Thakor has been fielded from Sabarkantha, Parthibhai Bhatol from Banaskantha, Manhar Patel from Bhavnagar and Ashok Adhevada from Surat.
On Tuesday night, the Congress had announced the name of sitting MLA CJ Chavda against BJP president Amit Shah from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. Gandhinagar has been a bastion of BJP veteran LK Advani, who has been representing the constituency since 1999. However, the saffron party this time denied ticket to sitting MP Advani and replaced him with its chief Amit Shah.
Polling in all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state will be held in a single phase on April 23 and the results will be declared on May 23.
