Rupani files nomination from Rajkot (West), slams Congress

Rajkot: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who filed his nomination for the next month's polls, on Monday attacked the Congress, saying the opposition party has "outsourced" itself to three prominent activists in the state as it has "nothing" of its own.

With the "son of Gujarat" Narendra Modi helming the central government, the state will scale new heights under the BJP, he said at a gathering here, adding "we will have to ensure that our pride is not hurt".

The BJP leader, accompanied by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, filed his nomination from Rajkot (West) Assembly seat at 12:39 pm, described as "vijay muhurat" (auspicious time) by party leaders.

Rupani is the sitting MLA from the constituency where voting will be held in the first phase on December 9.

Rajkot BJP president Kamlesh Mirani and cooperative sector leader Jyotindrabhai Mehta along with a group of supporters accompanied Rupani to the office of the district election officer, where he submitted his papers.

Before filing his nomination, Rupani addressed the gathering where he slammed the Congress, saying the party is relying on three activists to save itself in the BJP-ruled state.

The chief minister did not name anybody, but he was apparently referring to caste and community leaders Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani.

"The Congress is outsourcing as it has nothing of its own. Three people have come out to save the Congress, such is the condition of the party. The Congress is broken, and a Congress-mukt India means an India free of poverty, corruption and joblessness," he told the gathering.

He said if the BJP wins 150-plus seats in Gujarat, the state will achieve new peak in growth with the help from the central government.

"We will have to ensure that our pride is not hurt, and our development is stabilised. The Congress did injustice to Gujarat during 10 years of the UPA rule. Now, in Delhi, a son of Gujarat, Narendrabhai, has given a lot to Gujarat.

"Under a BJP government with 150-plus seats, Gujarat will achieve new heights of development with the help of the central government," he said.

Jaitley said the BJP has emerged as a symbol of "development and stability," while the Congress represented "anarchy".

"The BJP has emerged as a symbol of development and stability. In more than two decades of its rule in Gujarat, the party brought progress and development, and the state was put on the (investment) map of the country and the world," Jaitley told reporters.

Ahmedabad: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday said it will contest all 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly elections, after talks for alliance between the Sharad Pawar-led party and the Congress failed.

In 2007 and 2012, the NCP and the Congress had fought the state elections in alliance. In the present Assembly, the NCP has two MLAs.

The Congress alleged that the alliance broke down because of the NCP's demand for more seats than it should have in the prevalent situation in the poll-bound state.

Senior NCP leader Praful Patel said, "We will fight on all the 182 seats. We will release our candidates list today."

"I think it would be better for us to fight on all the seats on our own than in alliance with the Congress," the former Union minister said here.

Ahmedabad: The first list of candidates released by the Congress for the Gujarat Assembly elections has come as a disappointment for the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), as only two of its members have found a place in it.

Two PAAS members - Lalit Vasoya and Amit Thummar -found their names in the list released yesterday, even as the Hardik Patel-led organisation had demanded 20 seats.

Upset with the development, the PAAS leadership directed its two members (who were given tickets) not to fill their nomination forms, as a sign of protest.

However, one of them (Vasoya) filed his nomination on Monday from Dhroaji seat on the Congress' ticket.

After he filled up the form, Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel tweeted lines of a poem written by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.