Rajkot will witness a clash of old rivals after a gap of 21 years when all Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat — barring Surat, where the BJP nominee has won unopposed — go to polls in the third phase on May 7.
The BJP has fielded Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala against Paresh Dhanani of the Congress. Both candidates are native to Amreli district but are new faces in Rajkot. Mr. Dhanani is taking on Mr. Rupala after defeating him by a margin of over two lakh votes from the Amreli seat in the 2002 Assembly poll.
“Since then, Mr. Rupala has somewhat taken a back seat in contesting elections. After his loss, he was appointed the State BJP chief and later nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP,” Mr. Dhanani told The Hindu.
