'Since the last ten days our own people were spreading canards and propaganada against me and my family.'
'I was upset by this behaviour and I decided that I should not contest this Lok Sabha election.'
Two probable Bharatiya Janata Party candidates -- two-term sitting MP Ranjanben Bhatt from Vadodara and debutant Bhikhaji Thakor from Sabarkantha -- have withdrawn their names voluntarily from contesting the Lok Sabha elections. There are reports that BJP nominees from Anand and three more constituencies are planning to pull out from the Lok Sabha contest even after being named by the party.
While critics call signs of brewing dissent among those who could not make it to the BJP's list of 26 Lok Sabha nominees and even from those who have got the party tickets, Bhatt and Thakor scotch these news of 'brewing dissent' in the bud as they tell Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com that they have no plans to quit the BJP and join any other party or contest as rebels.
"I will not quit the BJP in this life or for next seven lives to come," says Bhatt, 62, who had once rebelled against the BJP in 2000 municipal elections and won.
"I will never quit the BJP; I have been part of the BJP for the last 25 years and will continue to remain with BJP till all my life," adds Thakor, 56, a former Vishwa Hindu parishad leader who had until his Lok Sabha nomination in 2024 contested only district level elections, for good measure.
Both Thakor and Bhatt are confident of a BJP encore of 2019 when the BJP won all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat and vow that they will work towards Narendra Modi's aim of achieving 400-plus Lok Sabha seats in this election.
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Ranjanben Bhatt
Why did you withdraw from the Vadodara seat?
Since the last ten days our own people (belonging to the BJP) were spreading canards and propaganada against me and my family. I was upset by this behaviour and I decided that I should not contest this Lok Sabha election.
The person leading this propaganda is an RTI activist and it is the BJP people who were running this tirade against me.
Who is this RTI activist?
I don't want to name anybody, but our own people were spreading canards about my family and me.
Why would a sitting two-term MP withdraw from contesting the election when she has been nominated by her party for the third time to contest a prestigious election?
I won the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019 with the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a good margin. If I had contested this time I would have won by a margin of more than 10 lakh votes.
Will you now quit active politics? What role would you be playing now?
I have always been a loyal party worker first and now that I am not contesting for the Lok Sabha I will continue to work as a loyal and ordinary party worker. <
I will do my bit to achieve the dream of Viksit Bharat (making India a developed nation) and help Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his feat of achieving 400 plus seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha eection.
Did you withdraw your name under pressure?
(Laughs.) I will not speak about it (now) but none of my supporters engaged in arm twisting or strong arm tactics; neither did I allow anybody to go against the party.
I was, I am and will continue to remain loyal to my party and my prime minister who chose me to contest from Vadodara when he vacated this seat after winning it in 2014 (Modi had contested from Varanasi and Vadodara in 2014 and he won both the seats; later he vacated the Vadodara seat).
I was again given an opportunity to serve the nation in 2019 and I won again with the blessings of my prime minister and BJP.
I shall continue to offer my commitment and loyalty to the BJP.
There are reports on social media hinting that your supporters and you are not happy with the turn of events and have plans to quit the BJP. Are these reports true?
I am not planning anything foolish like that. For me my party comes first; not my personal ambitions. Those spreading these reports are doing it with a bad intention to spoil my reputation. I will not quit the BJP in this life or for next seven lives to come.
I will be campaigning with same vigour and commitment to help whoever the party chooses as it candidate from Vadodara and help that candidate (the BJP has replaced Bhatt with first-timer Hemang Joshi) win this seat with a record margin.
Gujarat will once again vote overwhelmingly for the BJP; we will again win all the 26 Lok Sabha seats.
Will Narendra Modi fulfill his dreams of winning more than 400 Lok Sabha seats in 2024 as he has claimed?
I can vouch for the fact that the BJP will win all the 26 seats in Gujarat.
I would like to request the people of Vadodara that they should continue to shower their love and blessings on Modiji and be a part of Modiji's Viksit Bharat dream. We will all work together and once again get the lotus bloom in Vadodara.
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Bhikhaji Thakor
Why did you refuse to contest the Sabarkantha Lok Sabha seat even after the BJP fielded you from the constituency?
I did it for personal reasons. As it is, I am really very busy with party work in Sabarkantha and happy working to serve the BJP's interests in Gujarat. I don't plan to contest from any other party.
I will continue to be in the BJP and work towards achieving Modiji's dream of 400-plus Lok Sabha seats.
Social media has been abuzzabout your plan to join the Congress with 2,000 of your supporters. Are those reports untrue then?
One should not believe whatever one reads on the social media. I will never quit the BJP; I have been part of the BJP for the last 25 years and will continue to remain with the BJP till all my life. We will all work together to work for the victory of the BJP's Sabarkantha Lok Sabha candidate Shobhanaben Baraiya.
Who is responsible for spreading the rumours that you have plans to join the Congress?
I don't know who, but I was shocked to read this bit on WhatsApp. When I read it on WhatApp I immediately lodged a police complaint against unknown persons for defaming me and tarnishing my image. The police is investigating the matter and will take appropriate action once they find out who the culprit is.
I never made any statements or gave any hints (that I plan to join the Congress) but someone has played mischief and that person will pay for this mischief.
Let our political opponents play whatever dirty games they want to play, but they will not be able to stop BJP from winning all 26 seats from Gujarat and more than 400 seats across India. Our candidates will win each of these seats with a margin of more than 500,000 votes.
