Gujarat: Bharatsinhji Dabhi, BJP Candidate From Patan Constituency (image-facebook/Bharatsinhji Dabhi)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first candidate list on Saturday. In the first list, the saffron party has fielded Bharatsinhji Dabhi as its candidate in the Patan constituency. 

The first announced list consists of 195 candidates. Gujarat is a prestige battleground for the saffron party. Bharatsinhji Dabhi is a member of the legislative assembly from Kheralu constituency. He was elected three times from the same seat to the legislative assembly.

Patan is one among the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies of Gujarat. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP candidate Bharatsinhji secured victory for the party for the consecutive term. Pathan during 2019 witnessed a close battle between BJP and Congress. Bharatsinhji won the election by securing 63,33,68 votes while Congress candidate Jagdish Thakur secured 4,39,489 votes. 

While during the 2014 general elections, BJP candidate Liladhar Vaghela won the election by securing 5,18,538 votes. 

Last year in October, the BJP MP gave a controversial speech at Hemachandracharya University in Pathan. He while addressing the public, said that he has done many jobs but after joining politics he realized that politics is a profitable business. He said he has over 26 businesses but was forced to shut down as all of them were at loss. 

He then emphasising on the fast-growing political career he had, he said that he began as a Panchayat president and now has become MP of the parliament. 

Gujarat spokesperson Manish Doshi responded to the BJP MP’s remark by stating that the BJP has made politics a lucrative business. He also added that BJP is aiming to commercialize politics and demolish democracy.