Taluka panchayat polls: BJP retains Netrang as Congress’s surprise ‘shocks’ AAP
Even after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had won the most eight seats in the 16-member body, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Magan Vasava was elected to the post of president with the support of the lone winner from the Congress, on Monday afternoon, officials said.
It may be noted that in the previous elections, too, the BJP had won seven seats but got to the figure of nine with the support of the Bharatiya Tribal Party and the Congress.
An impasse over the control of the Netrang taluka panchayat in Bharuch has come to an end with the Congress pulling a surprise.
Even after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had won the most eight seats in the 16-member body, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Magan Vasava was elected to the post of president with the support of the lone winner from the Congress, on Monday afternoon, officials said.
The death of a winning member from the AAP had resulted in a tie between the AAP and the BJP in Netrang, with both parties ending up with seven winners each. At such a time, the Congress’s Nayna Prajapati emerged as a kingmaker, and she will now assume the role of vice-president.
Both candidates have submitted the necessary documents to taluka development officer Haresh Patel.
On Magan and Nayna’s election, Netrang BJP president Mansukh Vasava said, “We were in talks with the Congress candidate. Finally, they gave us the support to form the ruling body in the taluka panchayat. We had promised her (Nayna) the vice-president post, which she has accepted.”
Meanwhile, Nayna said: “I had two options. Both the AAP and the BJP were offering me the vice-president post. The reason to support the BJP is that it is in power in the district.”
However, the Congress’s Bharuch district president said supporting the BJP was Nayna’s independent decision. “It was Nayna Prajapati’s independent decision to support the BJP, and not the party’s. We were against the BJP and will remain so. We have informed the party higher-ups. They will appoint a team to look into the matter and take appropriate action,” Rajendrasinh Rana said.
The AAP’s Netrang taluka president Anil Vasava also expressed ‘shock’ by the Congress’s move. “We were in talks with the Congress’s leaders, and they had assured us of support. We were also shocked by how such a thing has happened and by the circumstances in which Congress’s Nayna Prajapati gave her support to the BJP. We are not getting a clear reply from the Congress.”
The tie between the AAP and the BJP was caused by the death of Gunvant Vasava, 62, who had won from the Bilothi seat in Netrang on an AAP ticket, at Surat’s Universal Hospital, days after he fell in a bathroom at a resort in Maharashtra’s Shahada, it was reported.
The doctors had said that the cause of his death was a brain haemorrhage.
It may be noted that in the previous elections, too, the BJP had won seven seats but got to the figure of nine with the support of the Bharatiya Tribal Party and the Congress.
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