Dalit lawyer and activist Jignesh Mewani today announced that he will contest the Gujarat Assembly elections as an independent candidate from Vadgam.
The Vadgam assembly constituency is located in Banaskantha district. The seat is reserved for member of Scheduled Caste.
The announcement comes hours after the Congress party released its third list of 76 candidates for the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly election.
The party, which has been seeking to dislodge from power, has not fielded anyone from Vadgam. There are 20 such more seats where the Congress has not fielded anyone.
Jignesh Mewani will be filing his nomination today itself as the process to file papers for the second phase of polling is slated to end in the evening.
The polling for the two-phase elections in Gujarat, having total 182 seats, will take place on December 9 and 14 and votes will be counted on December 18.
While 89 seats of Saurashtra and South Gujarat region are going to polls in the first phase, the remaining 93 seats including Vadgam in central and northern region would go for polls in the second phase.
Earlier this month, Mevani had met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and announced his support to the grand old party. He had, however, clarified that he was not joining the Congress but stressed that he along with all Dalit organisations and activists would go all out to defeat the BJP.
