BJP discusses 'vulnerable' LS seats

The second day of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) parliamentary board meeting concluded on Monday and a report is likely to be sent to the party's national president Amit Shah. The first list of candidates for Lok Sabha election 2019 is expected to be declared on Wednesday, said sources.

During the meeting, the leaders discussed vulnerable seats for the BJP on the counts of possibility of defeat of its candidate and heavyweight claimants.

The deliberations were made for Mehsana, Patan, Banaskantha, Amreli, Ahmedabad West and Ahmedabad East LS constituencies.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders summoned former MLA and Unjha's heavyweight leader Naran Patel to learn about his views on the Mehsana seat when the party wanted to field Congress turncoat Asha Patel. Naran Patel has submitted a two-page report to the party, saying if Asha Patel is fielded from that seat, the party is likely to lose the seat by a margin of 30,000 votes, top BJP sources told Mirror.

"I had attended the parliamentary meeting but left within a few minutes. I cannot divulge anything more than that," said Naran Patel. Highly placed sources in the party said, "We wanted to know the repercussions of Asha Patel being given a ticket from Mehsana. We also have KC Patel, party's general secretary, as another worthy candidate who can be considered from the seat." The party has distributed few seats keeping two aspects in mind -- one where there is possibility of defeat of the candidate and the second is the multiple claimants for the ticket. Amreli, Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana, Porbandar are the seats that are vulnerable for the party while Ahmedabad East, Ahmedabad West, Vadodara, Rajkot seats are seats where more than four heavyweights have claimed their candidature.

Patan seat is dominated by the Thakors and due to the influence of Alpesh Thakor, the chances of the saffron party winning the seat looks dim, said sources. Banaskantha too has influence of Thakors and there are many claimants here like former minster Shankar Chaudhary, incumbent Haribhai Chaudhary and GCMMF's former chairman Parthi Bhatol. However, Shankar Chaudhary is said to have refused to stand for the polls and expressed his desire to campaign for the party, said sources. Ahmedabad East seat has too many claimants like Paresh Raval, film actor Manoj Joshi, former Khadia MLA Bhushan Bhatt and Umiya Dham trustee CK Patel. Party sources claimed that CK Patel is likely to get the ticket from Ahmedabad East; he could replace Raval against whom there is large scale dissatisfaction among the public, sources told Mirror.

Two-time MP Kirit Solanki is likely to be repeated from Ahmedabad West. RSS worker and state general secretary Bhargav Bhatt is likely to get ticket from his home turf Vadodara. Amreli and Porbandar are the most vulnerable seats for the party due to Patidar factor. The party has had to face debacle in Amreli district where five out of seven assembly seats had gone to Congress in 2017 polls. So, the party is doubly careful about taking a chance here. On the other hand, since Porbandar MP Vitthal Radadia is not keeping well, the party is looking for a fresh face. Former PAAS leader Reshma Patel has decided to fight from Porbandar, making it more difficult for the BJP which is looking for ways to garner Patidar votes here. So, serious deliberations are on for both the seats and BJP is finding it hard to zero in on winnable candidates.

Anandiben on visit to Gujarat

Madhya Pradesh governor and former CM Anandiben Patel is on a five-day visit to Gujarat.

Her visit at the time of meeting of the BJP's parliamentary board is being seen as her desire to get daughter Anar Patel a ticket from either Gandhinagar or Ahmedabad West seat.