AAP declares 12 more candidates for Guj polls

Ahmedabad/ rajkot: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday announced the names of 12 more candidates, including former Patidar quota leader Alpesh Kathiriya, for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, which has been trying to project itself as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) main contender in Gujarat, released its 11th list of candidates on Monday.

With this, it has so far declared 130 candidates for polls to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly which will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of

votes will be taken up on December 8.

Kathiriya has been given the ticket from the Patidar-dominated Varachha Road seat in Surat city, currently held by former minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kishor Kanani. Another Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Dharmik Malaviya has been chosen for the Olpad seat in Surat, also held by the BJP.

The other AAP candidates are - BT Maheshwari (to contest from Gandhidham seat), MK Bombadiya (Danta), Ramesh Nabhani (Palanpur), Mukesh Thakkar (Kankrej), Lalji Thakor (Radhanpur), Rajendrasinh Parmar (Modasa) and Umesh Makwana (Botad).

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said whatever happened to the victims of the Morbi footbridge collapse can happen to anybody in

the BJP-ruled Gujarat and sought to know why the owners of the private firm that renovated the ill-fated carriageway were not booked for the tragedy.

Stepping up campaigning for the December 1 and 5 Assembly polls, Kejriwal urged the people of Gujarat to give a chance to his outfit to rule the state for five years.