New Delhi: A meeting of the BJP central election committee got underway here Wednesday evening to finalise the party's candidates for the Gujarat assembly polls, with Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor who left the Congress to join it among the probable. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, BJP president J P Nadda and other top leaders attended the meeting at the party headquarters here.
Sources said Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor are likely to get party tickets. Patel may be fielded from Viramgam in Ahmedabad. Cricketer Ravindra Jadeja's wife Rivaba Jadeja also among the probable candidates, the sources said. The BJP is likely to field Kantilal Amrutya, a former MLA from Morbi, who reportedly jumped into the river to save people after the collapse of a bridge, which killed more than 130 people.
The saffron party is likely to finalise all 182 candidates during the meeting and announce their names in the next few days, sources said. The BJP is eyeing a seventh consecutive victory in the state. Aiming to set a new record in terms of the number of seats won, the saffron party is looking to inject new energy into the organisation. Hence, the possibility of dropping several senior leaders from the list of candidates cannot be ruled out, the sources said.