‘Not Even In My Dreams’: BJP’s Youngest Candidate In Gujarat Receives Vadodara Nomination

Mr. Joshi and his wife were attending a musical programme on Holi when he was flooded with congratulatory calls. That’s when Mr. Joshi learnt that the BJP had picked him as its candidate for the Vadodara seat.

At 33, Mr. Joshi is the BJP’s youngest candidate in Gujarat, which elects 26 MPs. Mr. Joshi said he has large shoes to fill considering that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had won from Vadodara in 2014 before vacating it for Varanasi.

In an interview, the young BJP leader said he is striving to win by a margin of over 10 lakh votes, a target set by their state chief C R Paatil. All the seats in the state will go to polls in the third phase on May 7.

While the victory margin target in other seats is 5 lakh votes, Paatil has kept it at 10 lakh in Vadodara, said Mr. Joshi, who figured in a list of India’s 40 young leaders under 40 prepared by media platform Fox Story India. Mr. Bhatt had won the Vadodara bypoll in 2014 after PM Modi gave up the seat.

She won from here in 2019 and was gearing up for a third term when an internal rebellion in the local BJP unit dashed her hopes. Last month, she announced her unwillingness to fight the polls.

A day later, Mr. Joshi, a former student leader, was picked for the job. “To give a person like me an opportunity to contest such a big election, and to offer all kinds of support for the same is overwhelming for me,” he said.

Mr. Joshi said he is also banking on the support of the constituency’s young voters. He said he represented the Modi government’s efforts to mobilise the country’s young population to make India a developed nation by 2047.

When PM Modi launched ‘sankalp patra’ (manifesto), he said it is a reflection of the aspirations and expectations of the country’s youth, Mr. Joshi pointed out. Asked if their victory margin target of 10 lakh votes was ambitious, Mr. Joshi said Vadodara has traditionally been a BJP stronghold.

The constituency has elected three women MPs since 1991. Mr. Joshi is pitted against Congress’ Jaspalsinh Padhiyar, a former MLA from Padra.

“Congress’ mentality is not acceptable to the people of Vadodara,” he said. On the intra-party friction, he said sentiments make people impulsive at times.

“This is the election for Narendra Modi. People are not voting for Hemang Joshi but for Narendra Modi to become the prime minister for a third term,” Mr. Joshi added.