Congress leaders alleged that failing to win voters confidence through the election process, the BJP has resorted to heavy horsetrading by luring Congress corporators to switch sides and go to BJP.
Matters seem to have a come a full circle for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Opposition of the issues on which the party became a strong force, are rampantly being practiced by the party now that it is in power. Leaders of Congress have alleged that despite failing to get the voters' confidence through the election process, the BJP has now resorted to heavy horsetrading by luring Congress corporators to switch sides and go to BJP.
And this is where the plot thickens. Not to be outdone, Congress too plans to whisk away its corporators to an undisclosed location after the Swarnim Gujarat celebrations on May 1 till the new body is announced.
In the Gandhinagar municipal Corporation's maiden elections, whose results were announced last week, BJP won 15 of the 33 seats and Congress won 18. Initial reports by Congress leaders claim each corporator has been offered anything over Rs5 crore to switch over to BJP. "Our corporators have confided that if they refuse to be lured by money, they are being threatened and intimidated, especially if they are women or government employees. Every trick in the book is being used. They started luring all the 18 candidates right from the moment the results were announced," a senior Congress leader in Gandhinagar said.
"We are doing our bit to ensure their security and assure them, but the question is how such rampant abuse of the electoral process can be tolerated in a democracy? This is an atrocious misuse of power. This is complete mockery of democracy in Gandhi's Gujarat" Congress general secretary Nishith Vyas said.
These efforts notwithstanding, Congress is carrying on with their plans of felicitation meeting of all the 18 corporators on May 1 and the election of mayor and other standing committee chairman's posts on May 07. During that time, the party now plans to take them away to ensure no horsetrading takes place.
A source informs that the government is supposed to issue a notification within seven days of announcement of results, but this government has not done that. "To begin with, despite the town of Gandhinagar fulfilling all requirements of having a Corporation, government was not forming it. It was finally forced to do so last year after a High Court verdict. BJP knew that they were not going to win," he said.
In-charge of Gandhinagar elections Narhari Amin is however confident that BJP will not succeed and Congress will be the ruling party in GMC. "Not a single corporator will budge. The mayor will be a Congressman and I am confident about it," he said.
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