Rivaba Jadeja 'hits it out of the park' on poll debut

Jamnagar (Gujarat): BJP candidate and Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja's wife Rivaba Jadeja, made an impressive debut in her political career by notching victory from Jamnagar North constituency with a margin of over 61,000 votes.

She was pitted against Congress candidate Bipendrasinh Jadeja.

Rivaba got 84,336 votes against the Congress nominee who bagged 22,822 votes while AAP candidate Karshanbhai Karmur got 33,880 votes, according to the Election Commission.

She was selected as a candidate by the party over the sitting MLA and former Minister of State for Civil Supplies, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja.

Dharmendrasinh was annoyed with the party decision and was "seriously considering" to contest as an Independent candidate, but the party made him in-charge of assembly constituencies of Jamnagar district.

Rivaba is a Mechanical Engineer and wanted to pursue civil service, and had also started preparing for the competitive exams. In between, she got married to India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja in 2016.

The couple has a daughter, Nidhyanaba.

During the election campaign, her sister-in-law Naynaba had aggressively campaigned against her and even her father-in-law had appealed to vote for congress candidate Bipendrasinh.