The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken disciplinary action and suspended seven party leaders, who had filed nominations as independent candidates after being denied tickets by the saffron party.
All of the seven candidates were seeking tickets in the first phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections.
"These MLAs have been suspended for six years for having indulged in anti-party activities, " a BJP communication reveals quoting the party's state president CR Paatil.
BJP leaders who have been suspended include Harshad Vasava from Nandod in Narmada district. Arvind Ladani who has been seeking a ticket from Keshod Junagadh in Junagadh has also been suspended. Chattrasingh Gunjaria from Dhangadra in Surendranagar, Ketan Bhai Patel from Paradi in Valsad, Bharat Bhai Chavda from Rajkot rural, Uday Bhai Shah from Veraval in Gir Somnath district and Karan Bhai Baraiya who was seeking ticket from Amreli's Rajula face suspension.
The BJP which is seeking its seventh term in office in Gujarat has denied tickets to 42 sitting MLAs. The saffron party which announced its big first chunk of 160 candidates saw 38 sitting MLAs being dropped. Several party bigwigs, former Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and former Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel were denied tickets.
In the 2017 Gujarat polls, the BJP won at 99 seats out of 182 seats. The party has been in power for the last 27 years with Narendra Modi being the longest-serving chief minister of the state before beine elected the Prime Minister in 2014.
This time, the party under the leadership of PM Modi, Amit Shah and CR Paatil is aiming at getting its highest seat tally exceeding 140.
The state has been a BJP stronghold for a long and the party has set its sights on returning to power for the seventh term.
The state of Gujarat which has 182 assembly constituencies will go for polling in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will occur on December 8, which coincides with Himachal Pradesh's result date.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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