At least 70 candidates, most of the Gujarat’s four main city units, including former MLAs, mayors, and deputy mayors, pitch for serving as the BJP President of Surat. So far in the state’s ongoing organizational reform, BJP hasn’t been able to select its city unit leaders.
17 member of the Surat district submitted applications to be the district president. As per the reports, Ahmedabad City and district have received 25 and 24 proposal forms, respectively. In Vadodara and district, 55 and 54 members, respectively, shown interest while 33 in Rajkot and 24 at the district level, forms have received.
According to a national daily, Union Minister for Jal Sakti, CR Patil was in Ahmedabad and the names would be picked and announced shortly. The names were supposed to be decided on January 10.
To accept the candidate forms, on January 4, the state BJP sent the observers to various districts and municipal corporations and then after discussions with local BJP MPs and MLAs, the teams completed their tasks on the same day and compiled the list.
As per sources, the compiled list was submitted to the state BJP Parliamentary board a few days ago for final decision.
Janak Bagdanawala, former Surat MLA and Gujarat BJP Vice-President, is also a candidate for the position of Surat City President. Both the rival and Paatil camps have candidates interested in the positions. In addition to this, 4 women also submitted their applications for the city BJP position.
The battle is between opting people who are native to Surat and those who are migrants from Saurashtra in Paatil’s homefield of Suart, where former Ahmedabad MLA Rakesh Shah, Panchmahal Organisational Secretary Kuldeep Solanki, Chhota Udaipur party in-charge Ramesh Ukani, and Surat Vice-President Pankaj Desai were told to accept the forms.
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