Two days to go for the first general board, and how is the Congress preparing? By taking the elected Congress councillors of Rajkot district panchayat, with families, on an eight-day trip to Goa. The reason for the vacation? Fears that the BJP may ‘‘kidnap’’’ councillors before the first meeting of the general board—scheduled to be held on November 9—when the president and vice-president are to be elected.The Congress, which won the Rajkot district panchayat with a small margin, is unwilling to take any chances. Maintaining a majority in Rajkot has become a point of prestige for the Congress. That’s the reason that Congress MLA from Dhoraji-Jamkandoran Vithal Radadia has taken all 20 elected members to Goa.Of the total 37 seats, Congress has won 20 and BJP 17. A maximum of 19 is required to claim the majority. With the BJP needing two members to complete the required strength, Radadia has ensured that all his 20 men are far from the BJP’s reach. They will arrive in Rajkot only few hours before the meeting.‘‘All the 20 newly-elected members are with me in Goa,’’ said Radadia, adding that ‘‘we don’t want any trouble before the first general board meeting.’’The councillors will spend six days in Goa and two days in Mumbai and will be accompanied by their family ‘‘so that they are not lonely’’.Congress supremo in Rajkot district Radadia has a reason to feel insecure. Weeks before the district panchayat polls on October 25, he had taken 13 BJP members into the Congress fold. A day before the administrator took charge of Rajkot district panchayat, the outgoing ruling Congress had support of all 37 members. Radadia knows that the BJP can now play the same game. The BJP, on the other hand, dismissed any possibility of ‘‘poaching’’ Congress members.
