BJP drops about half of 2017 candidates in Gujarat 1st list

BJP declared its first list of 160 candidates for the Gujarat assembly polls on Thursday, retaining 69 sitting MLAs — including 11 former ministers of the erstwhile Vijay Rupani cabinet — and dropping 38 legislators to bet on a gallery of fresh faces like the Patidar agitation’s poster boy Hardik Patel and cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s wife Rivaba.