Gandhinagar

Decision on the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation(GMC) is likely to be out on May 6.

The first board meeting post election is scheduled on 6 May.

This is comfortably enough time to create favorable political arithmetic for both parties – BJP and Congress that have equal number of Councillors elected after recently concluded polls.

32-seat GMC elected body has 16 members of BJP and Congress each.

There are several possibilities on what may happen on 6 May and beyond that.

– Either party may convince rival party’s one or more Councillors to stay absent in board meeting to gain majority. To prevent this scenario, both parties are in communication with their winning candidates. Congress may organize tour for its 16 Councillors and take them to Congress-ruled state if that fits its budget.

– One or more Councillors may switch over to other party. This scenario is unlikely as any Councillor would prefer to stay absent to avoid disqualification. Switching over exercise may take place at latter stage.

– Violence or scuffle can’t be denied inside and outside the board meeting in upper two scenarios.

– If both parties have equal number of councilors during voting in first board, the administration may conduct lottery draw to decide who would rule the body. In such case, temporarily the issue will be resolved, but not permanently. In near future the other party may lure one or two members of rival party to its fold and the situation may change. Suppose if this doesn’t happen and both parties continue to have equal number, the problem will occur when ruling party would seek to pass budget. Without support of opposition, passing the budget would be difficult. On many occasion such matters have reached court.

– DeshGujarat