Former Surat mayor Bunki dies at 84

SURAT: Former Surat mayor and senior Congress leader Madanlal P Bunki passed away on Monday at the age of 84 years. He served as city mayor for two terms starting 1976 and 1981. Prior to that, he was standing committee chairman at Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC).
SMC offices and Nagar Prathamik Samiti run schools remained closed on Monday as a mark of respect to the departed soul and to mourn his demise.
In the 90s, Bunki had joined the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) floated by BJP dissident Shankersinh Vaghela. During the RJP government regime in Gujarat in 1998, he was nominated as the party candidate to contest the state assembly election from Surat (East) constituency but he lost to the BJP's Gulabdas Khasi.
After his party's defeat in the 1998 assembly polls, Bunki retired from politics and focused on the development of textile industry in the city. He was the president of Surat Weavers Cooperative Association (SWCA) and also served as the director at Surat People's Cooperative Bank (SPB) and Gujarat Industrial Bank.
He was known to have a command over Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations (BPMC) Act and many IAS officers and other senior officials often approached him on the intricacies of the act.