Ahmedabad: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday declared its first list of candidates for eleven Assembly constituencies in Gujarat including Rajkot (West), while stating that it would not contest from the seats where it is weak.
Rajkot (West) is currently represented by chief minister Vijay Rupani. AAP is going to field businessman Rajesh Bhut from the seat.
Delhi minister and AAP's Gujarat election in-charge Gopal Rai told reporters here that the names were finalised at a meeting of the party's political affairs committee in Delhi on Friday.
There are a total of 182 Assembly seats in Gujarat.
The election schedule is yet to be announced.
The constituency-wise candidates announced by the AAP today are: Anil Verma (Bapunagar), Ramesh Patel (Unjha), Rajesh Bhut (Rajkot (West)), J J Mewada (Danilimda), Nimeesha Khunt (Gondal), M D Manajaria (Lathi), Arjun Rathwa (Chhota Udepur), Rajendra Patel (Padra), Hanif Jamadar (Karjan), Rajiv Pandey (Pardi) and Ram Dhaduk (Kamrej).
Of these, nine constituencies are currently represented by BJP MLAs, while Danilimda in Ahmedabad and Chhota Udepur are with the Congress.
"We will be fighting these elections with a pledge to rid Gujarat of BJP. We had earlier said we will fight against the BJP on select seats. We want to give a direct fight to the ruling party, and we will not contest from any seat where we are weak and where there is possibility of division of votes which may help the BJP," Rai said.
Among AAP's candidates, Manajaria is a retired deputy collector and Mewada is a retired deputy superintendent of police. Verma is an educationist while Rathwa, Patel and Khunt are social activists.
Rai said the party will contest from only those seats which fulfil the criteria decided by its high command. Candidates for more seats would be declared in coming days.