With the last day of withdrawal of nominations for Phase-I of the Gujarat Assembly elections and filing papers for Phase-II getting over today, the battle lines are drawn for the 182-member House.
Payal Kukrani, daughter of Manoj Kukrani, one of the 16 convicts in the case related to the 2002 post-Godhra riots in the Naroda Patiya area of Ahmedabad which killed 97 Muslims, is contesting the polls from the Naroda Assembly constituency.
Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil on Thursday defended the allotment of party ticket to the daughter of a convict in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case for the next month's Assembly election and said she is a party worker contesting the polls on merit.