For the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections on December 9, the two major political parties — the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress have carefully maintained a caste balance.
After the close of the last date of the nominations filing on Tuesday, the parties considered the crucial Patidar factor while allotting ticket for the 89 seats going to polls in the first phase.
Following a long tussle with the PAAS, the Congress party fielded 22 Patidar candidates, while the BJP has 27 candidates from that community.
From the Other Backward Class (OBC) communities, the Congress has 33 candidates, while the BJP has fielded 26. While the BJP has not allotted any ticket to a Muslim candidate, the Congress has four Muslim faces — in Bhuj, Wankaner, Vagra and Surat West.
The reserved seats for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes were 14 and seven respectively for the BJP and Congress, while in the general category, the BJP has fielded 15 candidates against its rival’s eight.
Fighting elections on December 9 is Chief Minister Vijay Rupani from Rajkot West, and challenging him is Congress heavyweight Indranil Rajguru.
State BJP chief Jitubhai Vaghani and Congress leaders Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia will have their fates decided in the first phase.