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Gujarat Elections: Headlines, November 22, 2022

Nov 22, 2022: Modi takes potshots at ‘Congress model’; AAP candidates at Somnath

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the star campaigners of the BJP for the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections that are slated to be held in two phases on December 1 and December 5.

At a rally in Mehsana in north Gujarat, on Wednesday, Modi said, “The Congress model means corruption, nepotism, dynastic politics, sectarianism and casteism. They are known for indulging in vote bank politics and creating rifts between people to be in power.” “This model has not only destroyed Gujarat but India too. That is the reason why we have to work hard to take the country ahead today,” he said.

Modi also claimed that in the last 20 years, Gujarat has changed a lot. “Today’s generation does not know the scarcity Gujarat faced. This generation has not seen scarcity. For this, the previous generation has worked hard,” the PM said.

THE ISSUE OF FORCED WITHDRAWALS: The Aam Aadmi Party had faced an unusual situation in the Surat (East) constituency. Its candidate Kanchan Jariwala disappeared one evening, to emerge the next day and withdraw his nomination. AAP claimed that he had been “kidnapped” and forced to withdraw his nomination by the BJP. But Jariwala himself told the media that he had done it because he had discussed the idea of being an AAP candidate with his friends and had decided against the idea himself. On Sunday, 20th November, a day before the last day of withdrawal of nominations for the second and final day of polling in the state, AAP asked all its 93 candidates for the second phase to come to Somnath for a meeting. Officially, the party’s stand was that the candidates had gone to the Somnath temple for “darshan”. The candidates were asked to go back to their respective constituencies in the evening of Monday. Thus, the possibility of any candidate withdrawing his nomination will be eliminated.

Nikhil Savani, the vice-president of AAP’s youth wing, denied any herding of candidates by the party. “There is nothing like that. They are not here (Somnath) now, everyone is on the ground.”

WOMEN CANDIDATES: The four larger parties – the BJP, the Congress, AAP and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)- have fielded in the coming Assembly elections in Gujarat, 560 candidates. Out of them, only 40 are women. BJP has 17 women in the fray. The Congress, the AAP and the AIMIM have 14, 7 and 2 women candidates respectively.

A UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT: Balvantsinh Rajput, 61, is contesting from Sidhpur in Patan district on a BJP ticket, against Congress’s Chandanji Thakor, who had won from the constituency in 2017 by a handsome margin of 17,000 votes.

Mr. Rajput is a local entrepreneur, who worked with the Government of Gujarat so that Legislative Assembly of Gujarat passed Act no. 4 of 2018 for establishing Gokul Global University at Sidhpur. GGU has disciplines of Engineering & Technology, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Commerce, Management, Law, Humanities, and Vocational Skill Training, and AYUSH (Ayurved). Mr. Balvantsinh Rajput is the President of the University.   

—  By Sachin Ashal

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