NCP announces names of nine candidates

NCP on Friday announced the names of nine of its candidates including late 'Godmother' Santokben Jadeja's son Kandhal, for the Gujarat assembly polls, which is being fought by the party in alliance with the Congress. There were some fissures between the two parties on the issue of seat sharing as NCP had demanded higher number of seats this time. The NCP wanted 18 but the Congress decided to give just nine seats this time.

In the 2007 elections, NCP fought on 10 seats in alliance with Congress and won three of them.

Kandhal Jadeja, a Porbandar gangster and son of Santokben has more than a dozen criminal cases pending against him. He will be contesting from Kutiyana seat against Karsan Odedera of the BJP. He had recently challenged his externment order issued by the local administration from four districts of Saurashtra region, including Porbandar, in the Gujarat High Court saying that the state government was pressurising him to help BJP in the elections. The HC has stayed the order till the elections. NCP Gujarat chief Jayant Patel, a sitting MLA from Sarsa seat will contest the polls from Umreth. Sitting MLA from Gondal, Chandu Vaghasiya, who was arrested in a scam, will contest from the same seat.