BJP eyes Junagadh civic body polls, Cong banks on ‘good performance’

It had begun strongly by engineering defection of eight sitting Congress corporators, including deputy mayor Girish Kotecha and standing committee chairman Bhaga Rada to BJP last month. The party has awarded tickets to all the defectors, while also repeating nine out of its 23 corporators.

Gujarat BJP general secretary Vijay Rupani has been camping in Junagadh since the announcement of elections three weeks. State BJP chief Ranchhod Faldu had visited the city to release the manifesto of party. Since then, scores of ministers, state leaders, MPs and local MLAs have been campaigning in the city.

On Tuesday, former BJP national vice-president Purushottam Rupala addressed three public meetings. On Wednesday, Minister of State (MoS) for Agriculture Govind Patel and MoS for Tourism Jayesh Radadiya held group meetings. Besides the ministers, Surat Mayor Niranjan Zanzmer, Narhari Amin and Gordhan Zadaphiya also campaigned for party candidates on Wednesday.

“We are seeking votes on the agenda of development. We want to develop the city as a tourism and educational hub. Besides fast tracking the proposal for a ropeway for Mount Girnar, we also want to develop a ring-road encircling Narsinh Mehta Lake,” Sanjay Koradiya, Junagadh city BJP unit president said.

But Congress is banking on what it terms “good performance” during its five-year tenure and has repeated 10 of its 26 corporators. “We have ensured that Junagadh got underground drainage lines thanks to a special grant of Rs 324 crore from Centre.

We have developed Bhavnath Taleti at the cost of Rs 3.5 crore and crores have been spent on upgrading city roads,” said incumbent Mayor Lakha Parmar.