A'BAD: Acknowledging the presence of disgruntled BJP candidates have filed their nominations, Gujarat BJP chief Chandrakanta Patil on Friday threatened “adequate action” against them if they don’t withdraw within a given time.
Patil pointed out that for 182 seats, as many as 4,100 aspirants had sought the party ticket. “It is only natural that those denied the nomination will be unhappy,” he said. He hoped that such candidates would beat their frustration and gear up for the party work.
He said at least three candidates have filed their papers even after the party’s objection, Patil said that if they failed to withdraw their candidature within the specified timeframe, the party would initiate action against them.
The resentment against the party’s lists of candidates has been raging since the announcement of the first list and despite efforts of the senior party leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the discontent has shown no sign of waning.
On Thursday at least four former members of the assembly went against party diktat and filed their papers as Independents. Allegedly ‘insulted’ over the denial of the ticket by the saffron party, the controversial strongman of Waghodia and six-term MLA Madhu Shrivastava severed his ties with the party and went on to file his nomination on Thursday.
BJP had replaced Shrivastava with Ashwin Patel, much to the chagrin of Shrivastava and his supporters.
While the top leadership of the state unit left no stone unturned to mollycoddle Shrivastava, he denied them any audience and stuck to his guns.
Defying BJP’s 75-year age criteria for candidates, seven-time MLA from Manjalpur in Vadodara, Yogesh Patel (76) too filed his papers on Thursday.