Congress will announce a new candidate from Vadodara against Narendra Modi after Narendra Rawat, who was elected in the primaries today, withdrew his name to enable party to put up a strong contender against BJP's PM nominee.
"Narendra Rawat has retired from the contest following BJP's announcement to field Modi from Vadodara. He has requested me to convey to the party command regarding the decision," AICC general secretary in-charge for Gujarat Gurudas Kamat told PTI.
The announcement came ahead of the party's press briefing to release the sixth list of candidates.
Rawat, a local leader from Gujarat was named the candidate from the seat after he had won majority of votes of office bearers under the primaries experiment initiated by Rahul Gandhi as part of plans to bring fresh blood and grassroot workers to the fore.
Ever since Modi's candidature was announced from Vadodara, there was specualtion that Congress will change its candidate from the seat as the party declared that the electoral battle against the BJP's PM candidate will be fought strongly especially in constituencies which he is contesting.
The name of senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh is doing rounds for Varanasi seat against Modi and the party has made it clear that it will not vacate the political space by not contesting in favour of any candidate including Arvind Kejriwal.
