Petlad (Anand): The ruling BJP in Gujarat today snatched yet another local body from the fold of Congress when its candidate Jaiminiben R Patel was elected the president of Petlad municipality in Anand district.

36 seat Petlad Municipality was won by Congress in the local body polls in November 2015 with maximum 20 seats in its kitty, BJP got 14 while two independents were also elected.

Renukaben Vaghela of Congress who was elected president of the local body had resigned on August 16 owing to alleged interference by local Congress MLA Niranjan Patel and his son Saurabh Patel in the day to day affairs of the municipality.

After this the collector had instructed the body to hold its meeting today to elect its new president. Jaiminben R Patel of BJP got 22 votes with the support of six Congress members including dissident Renukaben and her 5 supporters and two independents. Congress candidate Rafikan Malek could get only 13. One Congress councilor was out of the country and could not vote.

BJP Petlad town unit president Dharmendra Parekh and Petlad Taluka unit general secretary Alpesh Patel said that the party would have majority (14+2 against 13 of Congress) even if the votes of the six Congress members were disqualified. ‘The Congress councilor who remained absent today was also in favour of BJP,’ they claimed.

Parekh said that BJP was the ruling party for over a decade in the local body prior to 2015 election.

DeshGujarat