Who Is Rivaba Jadega? BJP Names Cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s Wife As Candidate

The Gujarat assembly elections are set to take place next month, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday unveiled its preliminary list of candidates. Rivaba Jadeja, the spouse of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, was named as BJP's candidate for the Jamnagar (North) assembly seat on Thursday.

Jadega's announcement of her candidacy comes as the BJP, which has ruled Gujarat for the past 27 years, is battling anti-incumbency sentiments in the state. According to sources, she will run for the Jamnagar (North) seat in place of sitting MLA Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, who was not given a party ticket for this election.

The MLA also received criticism on Wednesday from the Gujarat high court for his "involvement in mob violence and rioting in 2007," and the court rejected a request to drop the charges brought against him and others. The court noted that under the guise of a greater public interest, the state government was attempting to save him "anyway and at any cost."

A number of sitting MLAs, including Vijay Rupani, Nitin Patel, and former cabinet minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, decided to be removed from the list of candidates at the party's election committee meeting on Wednesday, which was presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Who Is Rivaba Jadega?

• Rivaba Jadega, who is 32 years old, joined the BJP in 2019. Given that she is the niece of Congressman Hari Singh Solanki, politics are not utterly unknown to her.
• Her in-law and Ravindra Jadeja's older sister, Naynaba Jadeja, is a prominent member of Congress. They joined the party in 2019. Aniruddhsinh Jadeja, Rivaba's father-in-law, had additionally joined the Congress at the same time.
• There is widespread speculation that the Congress will nominate Naynaba to run against Rivaba in Jamnagar (North), a district where Rajput voters, according to sources within the Congress, predominate.
• Jadega is the ideal candidate to win this seat because of her strong support from locals and her involvement as a social worker, according to Vimal Bhai Mothara, the BJP's Jamnagar district president. He continued, "Even the prime minister has appreciated Ravindra Jadeja and his wife many times for their contributions in the fields of cricket and social work."