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After a mega show-of strength on Saturday in Ahmedabad, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah filed his nomination papers for the Gandhinagar Parliamentary constituency eyeing a debut to the Lok Sabha from the saffron bastion.
Shah handed over his nomination papers to the Gandhinagar district collector in presence of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minsiter Arun Jaitley and Thackrey.
The seat is currently represented by BJP veteran and former deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who had won for five consecutive terms from 1998 to 2014. The 91-year old leader, however, has not been given a ticket this time. The opposition party, Congress has yet not declared its candidate for Gandhinagar constituency.
Top brass of the Central BJP leadership and the key National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies such as Uddhav Thackrey from Shiv Sena, Ram Vilas Paswan from Lok Janshakti Party and Prakash Singh Badal from Shiromani Akali Dal remained present at the rally.
Tributes
Before heading to Gandhinagar later in the day, Shah paid tributes to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's statue in Ahmedabad and addressed a large gathering of BJP supporters on Saturday morning. "The party has nominated me from Gandhinagar constituency, which has been represented by Advaniji for long. He worked hard to make this constituency among the most developed ones. I will try to continue his legacy forward," said Shah, who is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat.
Notably, before being nominated for Rajya Sabha, Shah had represented a large portion of the Gandhinagar LS constituency in the State Assembly as an MLA from earlier Sarkhej and then Naranpura Assembly constituencies.
Eyeing a debut to the Lower House of the Parliament, Shah recalled his journey within the party, "There will be nothing left for me, if BJP is taken away from my life. Whatever I have learnt and catered to the nation, it all belongs to the BJP."
Support
Earlier, Ram Vilas Paswan and Uddhav Thackrey made public address raising questions on the united opposition front under Mahagathbandhan and the Congress. "They have in-fighting about their leader. How can they give a stable government to the country? We will not be among those who back-stab (the BJP). On the principles laid down by My father, our party will support Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the next term," said Thackrey amid clamour in support of "Modi Again".
Other senior BJP leaders present at the rally were Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal besides the Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani and deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel along with State party chief Jitu Vaghani.
The Gandhinagar constituency, having an electorate of about 19.20 lakh voters, will go to polls in the third phase on April 13.
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