As many as nine sitting members of legislative assembly (MLAs), six from Congress, two from BJP and one from JDU are contesting the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat this time.
Sitting MLAs who are in the fray belong to Banaskanta, Patan, Gandhinagar, Porbandar, Ahmedabad West, Rajkot, Kheda and Bharuch parliamentary constituencies. In Patan, two sitting MLAs namely Jagdish Thakor and Bhavsinh Rathor are contesting Lok Sabha polls. Thakor is contesting on Congress ticket, while Rathor is contesting on BJP ticket after joining the party.
Taking a cue from its last time's success formula, Congress this time has fielded six sitting MLAs to contest the parliamentary polls.
In 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Congress had fielded five sitting MLAs in the elections, out of which four won while only Vithal Radadia, contesting from Porbanadar, lost by a narrow margin. "This time also we have decided to field many sitting MLAs because they are locals and their chances of winning are very high," said Sidhdharth Patel, state president for Congress. Patel added that most of the MLAs fielded by the party would win from their respective constituencies.
The party has fielded Danta MLA Mukesh Gadhvi from Banaskantha seat, which was earlier represented thrice by his late father BK Gadhvi.
