Rivaba Jadeja, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, made an impressive debut in electoral politics when she defeated her closest rival in Jamnagar North constituency by 53,570 votes.
After 17 rounds of voting, Rivaba Jadeja had won 88,110 votes, while her closest rival Karshan Karmur of the Aam Aadmi party had received 34,818 votes, the election commission said.
In an interaction with ANI after winning, Rivaba thanked Ravindra and said he was her constant support throughout her campaign. “I also want to give him credit for this victory. As my husband, he was always by my side. He motivated me and that’s very important to me,” she said.
Congratulations to Rivaba Jadeja on a huge victory of over 30,000 majority votes. #RivabaJadeja
#Gujarat Election Result #Gujarat Elections #Gujarat pic.twitter.com/qpZwZewX9c— Aman Kumar (@amankra_05) December 8, 2022
“This was a first experience for him and when Modiji came he remarked in a lighter tone that ‘you (Ravindra) have never fielded like this before’.” He (Ravindra) did what he could for me,” Rivaba added.
Rivabha, who was the head of Karni Sena’s women’s wing, formally joined the BJP in 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. At a media event at BJP’s office in Jamnagar, she was welcomed to the party by Jamnagar-South MLA Rancho Faldu and Jamanar MP Poonam Maadam.
A year earlier in 2018, Rivaba had made headlines when she was allegedly assaulted by a police officer in Jamnagar city. However, the police officer had alleged that Rivaba drove her car rashly and rammed into his bicycle just outside police headquarters in the city. The officer, who was arrested, was later granted bail by a local court after his lawyer claimed the suspect had been ‘wrongly charged’.