Mumbai: Ajit Gopchade, who has been nominated as a BJP candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra on Wednesday, said that the decision took him by 'surprise.'
Speaking to ANI, Ajit Gopchade thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Amit Shah, and party national president JP Nadda for announcing him as a candidate.
"I am an ordinary party worker. I didn't know I was being nominated. I did not expect that I would be nominated for the Rajya Sabha. I have been in the BJP for the past 25-30 years. I want to work in the areas of medical education and research," he said.
The BJP on Wednesday announced three candidates for the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, including former Congress chief minister Ashok Chavan, former MLA Medha Kulkarni, and Ajit Gopchade.
While Chavan's nomination was a foregone conclusion, the party sprung a surprise by fielding Kulkarni and Gopchade.
A doctor, Gopchade hails from Nanded district and has enjoyed a long association with the RSS/BJP.
In 1992, Ajit Gopchade, who had then completed his MBBS, set out for karseva at Ayodhya. He proactively participated in the Ramjanmabhoomi movement. Gopchade was among those who were present at the site on the day the Babri Masjid demolition took place.
Speaking about the moment during the Babri Masjid demolition, he said, "I went there as a karsevak. There were many respected people with me at that time. We paid our service for Lord Ram that day."
The official list released by the central BJP only listed three names.
A day after joining the BJP, Ashok Chavan, who hails from Maharashtra's Nanded district, made it to the party's Rajya Sabha list.
A Maratha leader with a 38-year-long political career in Congress, Chavan's shift to the BJP was long awaited. He represented Nanded in the Lok Sabha from 1987-89, was elected to the state Legislative Council in 1992, and the state Assembly from 1999 to 2004 (Mudkhed constituency) and from 2009 to 2024 (Bokhar constituency).
—ANI