Perhaps the only “profession” where academic achievement is not taken into consideration is politics. or so the public believes.
The exception this time is Ahmedabad City, where half of the 32 candidates (from the BJP and Congress) are either graduates or postgraduates.
For a total of 16 seats in Ahmedabad, 11 candidates are graduates, 5 are postgraduates, and 2 are PhDs. Six candidates lack a higher secondary diploma.
Seven graduates belong to the Congress, and four to the BJP. Payal Patel, Ranjitsinh Barad, Vijaykumar Brahmbhatt, CM Rajput, Vipul Parmar, Sailesh Parmar, and Bhikhu Dave are the INC candidates.
While Payal Kukrani, the BJP candidate from Naroda, is a foreign medical graduate from Smolensk Medical University in Russia, three members of the BJP—Ami Shah, Kaushik Jain, and Darshna Vaghela—have graduate degrees.
Amee Yajnik, the INC candidate running against CM Bhupendra Patel in Ghatlodia, is the most educated of the group. She graduated from Stanford University with a doctorate in the science of law (JSD).
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, on the other hand, holds a diploma in civil engineering. With a PhD and an MEd in education, BJP candidate Harshad Patel is running from the Sabarmati district.
Three candidates, all from the BJP, with master’s degrees are Amit Thaker from Vejalpur, Hasmukh Patel from Amraiwadi, and Amul Bhatt from Maninagar. Thaker has a legal degree, Patel has a medical degree, and Bhatt has a chemical degree.
A graduate in planning from Ahmedabad’s CEPT University, Sonal Patel is running for Congress in Naranpura.
Naresh Vyas, a member of the BJP and candidate for the Danilimda (SC) constituency, holds a diploma in fine arts.
There are four such candidates running for office in Ahmedabad, two from the INC and one from the BJP. They did enrol in a graduate programme but were unable to finish college.
Balvantsinh Gadhvi (FYBCom) and Dharmendra Patel, both of INC, attained the SYBCom level. Both Jagdish Vishwakarma and Bhushan Bhatt, candidates from Jamalpur-Khadia in the BJP, have completed SYBCom.
Jitendra Patel from the Naranpura constituency and Dinesh Kushwaha from the Bapunagar constituency, both BJP candidates, have recently completed their upper secondary education.
Notably, Himmatsinh Patel, an INC candidate from Bapunagar, has only completed Class 9.
Amee Yajnik, the INC candidate running against CM Bhupendra Patel in Ghatlodia, is the most educated of the group. She graduated from Stanford University with a doctorate in the science of law (JSD).
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, on the other hand, holds a diploma in civil engineering. With a PhD and an MEd in education, BJP candidate Harshad Patel is running from the Sabarmati district.
Three candidates, all from the BJP, with master’s degrees are Amit Thaker from Vejalpur, Hasmukh Patel from Amraiwadi, and Amul Bhatt from Maninagar. Thaker has a legal degree, Patel has a medical degree, and Bhatt has a chemical degree.