The Valsad seat has a superstition attached to it — the party that wins in Valsad forms the government or helps in forming it in Gujarat. The trend has continued since 1975 where the Congress or the BJP, whichever has won from Valsad, has formed the state government. Hence, both the parties are trying their best to win from this seat.

On December 9, elections will be held for five assembly seats in Valsad district. Both the Congress and the BJP have accelerated the pace of selecting their candidates for the upcoming elections. According to the sources, old candidates will again be given tickets to ensure electoral equations don’t alter in the coming assembly elections.

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The rumours are rife that from one of the five seats, both the main parties – BJP and Congress – will be giving preference to the female candidates.

In the last assembly election in 2012, out of the five seats, BJP won on three seats and Congress on two seats. But this time both the parties are going out of their way to ensure an increase in the number of their seats. However, the parties are yet to decide and declare their candidates. The parties are said to have shortlisted three candidates for each seat, out of which the most prominent will finally contest the elections.

Valsad

Keeping in mind the tough competition, BJP has narrowed down its choice to Bharatbhai Patel, chairman of Valsad Municipality and BJP’s winner of the last term from Valsad, Sonalben Solanki and Bipinbhai Patel. Bharatbhai may come out as a winner to contest the seat.

For the Congress Vijaybhai Desai, Narendra Tandel and Prakashbhai Patel are the top names for the Valsad seat.

Pardi

Meanwhile, the names of Kanubhai Desai, Kiranben Patel and Hardik Shah are being discussed as the BJP candidate for the Pardi assembly seat. The party may select Hardik Shah, a former municipal president, as he has a clean and good image. In case the party allocates it as a female designated seat, then Kiranben Patel will be the candidate.

On the other hand, Congress has two candidates — Khandubhai Patel, and Bharatbhai Patel — for the Pardi seat. Bharat Bhai has chances of getting nominated for the seat.

Umargaam

For Umargaam, Ramanbhai Patkar is the BJP’s favourite contender, the other two being Anita Ben Patel and Deepak Bhai Choudhary. For Congress, one among Bharatbhai Ghodi, Nareshbhai Valvi, and Ashokbhai Ghodi may get the nod.

Kaprada

Meanwhile, the Congress has dominated the Kaprada seat for many years as Jitubhai Chaudhary has done a lot of developmental work in the region. The BJP is fighting tooth and nail to conquer the seat and also working hard to carefully select a strong contestant against Jitubhai. The names of Gulab Bhai and Babubhai Ravtha is doing the rounds for the candidature, however, Gulab Bhai is people’s favourite.

Dharampur

For the Dharampur seat, the Congress has to select between Ishwarbhai Patel, Jayashreeben Patel and Ramesh Padvi. Out of the two, Congress seems to be more confident about Ishwarbhai. Whereas for the BJP, Mahendra Chaudhary, Arvindbhai Patel, and Ganeshbhai Birari are among the potential candidates.

However, all of them are just potential candidates for now and the real picture will be clear only by November 18.