Days after wresting taluka from Congress: ‘Discontented’ over new office-bearers, 9 BJP councillors ‘resign’ from Kalol municipality | Gandhinagar News
2 min readNine councillors of the ruling BJP in Kalol municipality of Gandhinagar district have tendered their resignations over “discontent” in the appointment of new office-bearers after the completion of two-and-a-half-years of the elected local body.
The resignations have come as an embarrassment for the BJP that had recently snatched the Kalol taluka panchayat from the Congress, which had alleged that the BJP had misused police force to usurp power in the taluka panchayat.
A senior officer of the municipality confirmed to The Indian Express that the nine BJP councillors have tendered their resignations, addressing the same to new president Shailesh Patel. Gandhinagar district BJP president Anil Patel also confirmed that the nine councillors have tendered their resignations as they were “unhappy” with the latest appointments of office-bearers in the municipality.
“Their unhappiness is mainly in the appointment of the standing committee chairman. The party has made a policy that those who have held the posts of president, vice-president and the standing committee chairman earlier are not to be repeated so that others get a chance. Now, there is one post, how can the party accommodate four people in it?” said Anil Patel.
At the same time, newly appointed president Shailesh Patel claimed that he has not received the resignations. He added that he would take charge of the office of the president Wednesday. He also requested to talk to the party unit of Kalol on the issue.
According to rules, after two-and-a-half-years of the elections, the ruling body of the nagarpalika was changed on September 16 with the appointment of the new president, standing committee chairman and other office-bearers. Prakash Vargade was appointed the standing committee chairman.
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Anil Patel added that it was all “internal politics”. “They (the nine) are using pressure tactics so that they get some better posts in the future. I think they (the nine) will be back. If they don’t (get back), I am awaiting a green signal from the party high command to accept their resignations. What else can be done?” he said.
Meanwhile, Manubhai Chaudhary, one of the nine councillors to tender their resignations, expressed hope that “the matter will end happily”, but refused to talk any further on the resignations.
The Kalol municipality, which falls under the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency represented by Union Home minister Amit Shah, has 44 seats. The BJP has won 33 seats whereas the Congress has nine seats. It also has one independent candidate.