“One who spends money is selected for the post of Mayor”

Junagadh, 21 July 2014

A day before results of Junagadh Municipal Corporation(JMC) election, the Mayor of Junagadh and Congress party leader Lakhabhai Parmar’s sting operation on a Gujarati news channel was talk of the town.

In what it seems frank and casual conversation to a reporter of Gujarati news channel VTV Gujarati, Congress Mayor Lakhabhai Parmar was heard as saying that whoever is ready to spend money is selected for the post of Mayor.

According to reporer who conducted this sting operation, Lakhabhai said he paid Rs. 2.5-3.0 lakh to each councillor to get their support. He said he spent Rs. 50 lakh thus for two and half years term. He said he had also informed the party that he had received support of councilors, and then he was selected for the post of Mayor, however, Councillors who received money from him, broke trust and joined BJP before the end of two and half years term.

Lakhabhai said, even state party president has no role to play in selection process for Mayor of Junagadh. It is MLA Jawahar Chavda who manages party affairs in Junagadh, he added.