BJP pulls off a democratic coup

DAMAN, July 12: The Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to capture the Daman Municipal Council as well as the district panchayat in the wake o...

DAMAN, July 12: The Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to capture the Daman Municipal Council as well as the district panchayat in the wake of its success in toppling the Congress-backed president of the civic body on Thursday, when nine councillors out of 15 voted in favour of a non-confidence motion against Mario Lopes. Six members abstained from voting.

Moved at the BJP8217;s behest, the success of the no-trust vote was actually a foregone conclusion, as four councillors had switched over to the party. This development is likely to pave the way to DMC presidentship for a councillor of the Maachi community, who have traditionally held the post.

The only exception to the rule, in fact, was Lopes, who became chief after winning the confidence of two of the seven Maachi community councillors. The new incumbent is likely to be Narendra Bhatela, according to BJP sources.

Finance Secretary R S Negi, who is also director of the municipal administration, has placed G L Meena an assistant commissioner in the excise department in charge of civic affairs till the election of a new president.

The election process, Additional Magistrate K R Kishor told Express Newsline, would begin as soon as Negi returned from an official visit to Delhi. The new president and vice-president have to be elected within 25 days of the passage of a no-confidence motion.

According to sources, the democratic coup8217; in the DMC took Lopes by surprise, though observers said such a development had long been forecast. Lopes apparently failed to notice the change in mood triggered by the wresting of the Congress parliamentary seat in the UT by BJP MP Devji Tandel.

8220; We have paid them the Congress back in the same coin8221;, BJP leader Anwar Mehmood said, recalling that BJP-backed Maachi councillor Gandesh Bakhia had been similarly overthrown in December 1996, exactly 11 months after he was selected DMC president. While admitting similarities, Councillor Nazir A Dingmar, a Lopes supporter, alleged that this time, unlike the last, councillors had been bribed to vote in favour of the motion. Sanjay Shah, he charged, had been promised the vice-president8217;s seat, while Usha Kiran had been offered a huge sum of money.

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While neither Shah nor Kiran could be contacted for their comments, Mehmood, chief of the BJP minority cell, denied that any money had changed hands. 8220;All four councillors were inclined towards the BJP. For them, it8217;s like a homecoming8221;, he claimed.

Tandel, who was in Daman the day the no-trust vote was passed, was of similar opinion. While welcoming the four councillors, he reportedly said the party welcomed those who wanted to strengthen the BJP.

Interestingly, both groups in the DMC agreed that it was the transfer of Administrator S P Aggarwal 8212; who is supposed to have had a 8220;soft spot8221; for the Congress 8212; that was the catalyst for the change. Kishor, however, said that that had nothing to do with the D MC developments. According to Dingmar, the BJP was now planning a no-confidence motion against district panchayat chief Dahyabhai V Patel, who quit the Congress to contest the Lok Sabha elections but was now working to revive the same party, sometime before August 15.