The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded the youngest candidate in the state, 33-year-old Hemang Joshi, from the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat. This development took place after sitting MP Ranjan Bhatt unexpectedly pulled out of the electoral race despite being renominated by the BJP.
At 33, Joshi is the BJP’s youngest candidate in Gujarat, which elects 26 MPs.
'...Had not even dreamt of getting the ticket': Joshi's reaction
In an interview with PTI, 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.
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"I had not even dreamt of getting the ticket. It came as a matter of immense surprise to me," he said.
"Until my name was officially announced, I did not even get a phone call that I was being considered as the party candidate. My wife and I are working people, and we get little time to go out together. We were out to attend a musical programme at Sursagar lake in the city on Holi after offering prayers when my name was announced," Joshi continued.
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"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.
"The region has emerged as the education capital of Gujarat. We have MS University, Central University, Sports University, Gati Shakti University and several top-ranking educational institutes with more than two lakh students. Here 30-35 percent of voters are young whom we are trying to tap," he said.
"People cutting across class and caste lines have liked the BJP. Vadodara has also served as PM Modi's karmabhumi. So here we do not need to campaign for the party but to relive and rejuvenate the people's existing connection with the party," he said.
About Hemang Joshi
33-year-old Hemang Joshi currently is the vice chairman of the municipal primary school board. Earlier, he was once the general secretary of the students’ union of Maharaja Sayajirao University as a member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS.
According to Joshi, he has done a course on leadership in education from IIM Ahmedabad and is now pursuing a PhD in leadership.
