(In)famous appearance

For the upcoming Assembly election of Surat West constituency,Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) has not fielded any candidate due to “lack of funds”. The Congress has fielded D L Patel (retired Sales Tax officer),while BJP has fielded Purnesh Modi (Surat city BJP president) for this seat. In the last general election for the legislative Assembly,GPP had fielded candidates for all the constituencies in Surat,but it could not capture a single seat. GPP leader of Surat,Ashish Chauhan said,“The election is of only one seat and we have,after carrying out a meeting with our party leaders,decided not to field any candidate. The reason is we are lacking funds. The upcoming parliamentary election is also round the corner and we are planning our strategy on it and are also collecting funds for it.” Sources said that till Monday 24 candidates have filed their nominations for the election. The election for this constituency is scheduled on December 4 and the counting will take place on December 8.

Business as usual

It has become a usual practice to see corporate honchos sidling up to Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and lavishing him with praises at events that involve launches of their products or manufacturing facilities in the state. However,Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry,who attended the launch of TCS IT park in an SEZ in Gandhinagar,refrained from using any inflated adjectives for the Gujarat CM in his speech at the event. Mistry kept his praise to the bare essentials by calling the state “important to the Tata Group” because of the presence of many major Tata companies here and lauded the state government for displaying efficiency in governance and giving a world class infrastructure. Even Modi,who is usually known for his stinging verbal attacks on the UPA government,kept up a subdued political tirade and focussed his speech on the importance of the IT industry in changing human lives.

ATM to follow office hours

The Bharatiya Mahila Bank’s — India’s first all women’s scheduled bank — first branch in Gujarat was inaugurated in Ahmedabad by the Prime Minister through video conference from Mumbai on Tuesday. The branch,located on the CG Road in Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad,has its ATM placed at an unexpected location. The machine,which is expected to be accessible 24×7,was located on the first floor and that too,after the main gate,which would be closed after banking hours. So,it was not an “Any Time Money” dispenser in strict sense,but just an “Automated Teller Machine” which could be operated during office hours. Officials were too busy to be contacted to explain this,during the inauguration.

Quite an experience

With the Assembly elections in the neighbouring Madhya Pradesh slated on November 25,BJP party workers from Vadodara are readying up to lend a helping hand to their counterparts in the election-bound state,using their expertise of working at the booth-level during the 2012 Gujarat Assembly elections. As many as 100 BJP party workers on Tuesday left for Indore on their personal vehicles,following party instructions,to work in nine constituencies that they have been assigned within the last leg of campaigning. They will reach party office in Indore where they will be handed out precise assignments. They belong to various party morchas,including women’s wing,SC/ST wing,minority wing,among others. While they reach Indore,Congress has already placed youth Congress members from the city to work in various villagers and towns in Madhya Pradesh to spread party messages. And they are already on the roll,if their regular Facebook updates are to be believed!

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