Shweta, flanked by her husband who had alleged complicity on the part of Modi in the 2002 riots, today started a march along with her followers from Mahatma Gandhi's Ashram here and reached the district collectorate office where she filed her nomination papers before returning officer P K Jadeja.
A political novice, Shweta will face the hard task to uproot BJP strongman Modi, who had won the 2007 Assembly election by more than 75,000 votes from Maninagar.
"It is not a fight between equals, I agree...But I am fully confident that I am going with a true heart to say the truth, so people will support me...I don't have false promises to make," Shweta told reporters in reply to a question on unequal contest between her and Gujarat CM.
"I have chosen to fight because they had implicated my husband in a very bad way. Me and my family were struggling to overcome it. Then I realised, it was not only my family but many other families who were struggling," Shweta said in reply to why she chose to fight elections.
"Democracy is being destroyed in Gujarat, democracy is not visible in the state," She further said.
"During our fight (against Modi regime) lot of people came to support us from Gujarat and outside the state," she added.
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"My fight is for truth, to establish democracy, please support me," she said.
In reply to a question on BJP's allegations of Sanjiv Bhatt being used as a pawn by the Congress party, Shweta said, "I had decided earlier that I will contest independently (against Modi)... But now the Congress has given me an opportunity so I am fighting on their ticket," she said.
The BJP slammed Congress for giving a ticket to Shweta.
"Congress is exposed thoroughly today. In the last 10 years, they carried out a hate campaign...They defamed Gujarat to the hilt. And Sanjiv Bhatt became a major pawn in the hands of Congress," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said in New Delhi.MORE