Congress firm on its choice against Narendra Modi from Vadodara Lok Sabha seat

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Congress today ruled out any possibility of changing its candidate from Vadodara Lok Sabha seat, Narendra Ravat who is considered as a political greenhorn pitted against BJP's PM nominee Narendra Modi.

There are demands from certain sections within Congress to replace Ravat.

However, Congress scotched the demand saying Ravat, who is the city unit president, emerged as a consensus candidate after winning the party primary introduced by its vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

"There is no question of changing the candidate of Vadodara seat who has been elected after the concept of primaries introduced by Rahul Gandhi," Congress party said in a statement here.

Modi, who is contesting from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, has picked Vadodara as the second seat.

BJP has said Modi will win from Vadodara in an unprecedented margin.

This is the first election in political career of Ravat, an engineer by profession and a senate member of Maharaja Sayajirao University, and he is facing none other than Modi.

According to analysts, Congress, while giving ticket to a newcomer, apparently failed to gauge the possibility of Modi contesting from the seat, a BJP bastion.

Vadodara has been chosen by Modi as he can maximise his lead, since the seat has been traditionally in the BJP's kitty. In 2009, BJP's Balu Shukla won by a margin of over 1.36 lakh votes.