Gujarat bypolls: Congress fields Khachar against BJP's Rana

Gandhinagar, Oct 16 (IANS) While the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced former minister Kiritsinh Rana as its candidate from the Limdi Assembly constituency for the November 3 by-elections, the Congress on Thursday named Chetan Khachar as its candidate from the seat.The announcement was made by interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Thursday evening. Khachar is the former President of the Surendranagar district panchayat.The BJP had declared former minister Kiritsinh Rana as its candidate from Limdi on Wednesday.Eight Assembly seats will go to the polls in Gujarat on November 3, while the counting of votes will take place on November 10. Apart from Kiritsinh Rana, the BJP has fielded five Congress turncoats who joined the BJP as its candidates -- Pradyumansinh Jadeja from Abdasa, Brijesh Merja from Morbi, JV Kakadiya from Dhari, Jeetu Chaudhary from Kaprada and Akshay Patel from Karjan. The saffron party has also fielded former state minister and ex-Deputy Speaker Atmaram Parmar from the Gadhada (SC) seat and former legislator Vijay Patel from the Dangs assembly seat.Besides Khachar, the Congress has fielded Babu Vadthaa from Kaprada, Suryakant Gamit from Dangs, Shantilal Sanghani from Abdasa, Jayantibhai Patel from Morbi, Suresh Kotadiya from Dhari, Mohanbhai Solanki from Gadhada and Kiritsinh Jadeja from Karjan as its candidates.
--IANS amc/arm