AHMEDABAD: The BJP on Thursday began the selection process of candidates for the assembly polls in Gujarat. The state unit has announced a three-member team of observers for each of 33 districts and five major cities of the state.
With the party’s selection process on, lobbying for the tickets has reached its peak. BJP observers will collect feedback from party workers at the local level for three days. At some places, there was a heavy rush of candidates for the Scheduled Castes reserve seats such as Asarwa in Ahmedabad.
In central Gujarat, aspiring candidates gathered in Vadodara at ‘Trimandir’ where potential candidates are to be shortlisted for Dabhoi and Waghodia Assembly seats. Vadodara city observer Shankar Chaudhary told the media that his team would be in the city for two days and select candidates for four Assembly seats.
In Surat city, the observers spoke to aspiring candidates for six out of a dozen seats. A controversy broke out over Varaccha MLA Kumar Kanani’s comment that industrialists should not be considered for the ticket at the cost of grassroots workers, Dinesh Navdia, chairman of Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council.