Rivaba Jadeja, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, who joined the BJP three years ago, is one of the candidates who are likely to receive the party’s nomination for the Gujarat assembly elections as the BJP Central Election Committee will meet today to decide on final candidates.
Some of the party’s senior officials, including former chief minister Vijay Rupani and former deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, who have been in office for 27 years in Gujarat, might not run. It has been learned that those above 75 years old, as well as family members of MPs and MLAs, will be ineligible, a report by NDTV, said.
Rivaba Jadeja is connected to Congress stalwart Hari Singh Solanki and is a mechanical engineer by training. In 2016, she married Ravindra Jadeja. She has also served as the leader of the Rajput community organisation Karni Sena.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Defense Minister will all be in attendance at the panel’s meeting, which will be presided over by the party’s leader JP Nadda.
Gujarat, the home state of PM Modi and Amit Shah, will vote on December 1 and 5. The results of Himachal Pradesh, where the BJP is also trying to retain power, will be released on December 8.
As a preliminary step to today’s meeting, the party’s core group for Gujarat met in Delhi on Tuesday for three hours at JP Nadda’s house. Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, state unit president CR Patil, and Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya are a few of the individuals that belong to the faction.
The elections are shaping up to be a three-way battle. While the Congress, which increased its vote share and seats last time, has kept its campaign low-key — something it claims is on purpose. The Aam Aadmi Party has launched a massive campaign, determined to disrupt what it calls a ‘friendly match’ between the two major parties.
The BJP is expected to finalise all 182 candidates that it will announce over the next few days at its meeting today.
In 2017, the BJP received 99 seats, while the Congress received 77. Following defections and resignations from the Congress, the BJP now has 111 seats in the assembly.
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