Congress fields Dhanani from Gujarat’s Amreli LS seat

Gandhinagar, April 2 (IANS) Putting an end to all the speculation, the Congress on Tuesday announced Paresh Dhanani, the Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, will contest from the Amreli Lok Sabha constituency.

It also announced four other candidates, including from Jamnagar after newly-inducted member and Patidar leader Hardik Patel's chances of contesting from there grew dim.

After having long discussions in the screening committee meetings, the party high command finally coaxed the reluctant Dhanani to contest from the seat in Saurashtra region for which many people were lobbying.

Senior Congress leader and sitting MLA, Virji Thummar had been pushing for a ticket from Amreli for his daughter Jenny. The other strong contenders were Suresh Kotadia and J.V. Kakadiya.

Among the other candidates, Mulubhai Kandoriya will be the candidate from Jamnagar seat after the Supreme Court rejecting Hardik Patel's plea seeking an urgent hearing to stay his conviction in a rioting case.

For the hot seat of Gandhinagar, from where Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah is fighting his first Lok Sabha battle, sitting MLA C.J. Chavda has been selected. Earlier, the Congress high command was mulling to field a big and strong candidate against Shah but later decided against it.

For the Surendranagar seat, the party has chosen a senior leader in Somabhai Ganda Bhai Patel.

Earlier in the day, the Congress had declared A.J. Patel its candidate from the Mehsana constituency, in a region which is the stronghold of the Patidar community.