Election for president, vice-president in panchayats: In talukas, Congress betters but with upsets

In Pardi taluka of Valsad district, a BJP rebel member who had filed nomination for the post of vice-president as a Congress nominee was allegedly picked up by the police in Silvassa in the Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli just ahead of the elections, suspecting him to be a criminal.

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Accompanied by Congress leaders, including MLA Jitu Chaudhary, BJP rebel member Nirav Patel had gone to neighbouring Silvassa where he was picked by the local police from a restaurant. “Last night, we had received information that a criminal had come to Silvassa and was dining at a restaurant. We reached there and caught Nirav Patel, and brought him back to police station. We questioned him and after going through the inputs, we found that he is innocent and our team had picked up wrong person, so we allowed him to go back,” said Inspector K B Mahajan.

However, the detention proved costly for the Congress as the party lost to the BJP. Both the BJP candidates, Naresh Patel and Ajay Patel, got elected for the post of president and vice-president, respectively. The strength of the 22-member body, where BJP had 10 members and Congress 12 in 2015, dropped to 20 in all these years, after one woman Congress member was disqualified and the another Congress leader quit the party. The elections to both the posts are still pending. In a by-election for one post after the death of a Congress candidate, the BJP won, taking its tally to 11, while the Congress’s strength dropped to 9. After BJP’s Nirav Patel rebelled and joined hands with the Congress, both the parties were equally poised at 10 members each. However with the absence of Nirav Patel in the polls on Wednesday, BJP won both the posts. “The Congress had lured our member Nirav Patel, and they wanted to continue their power. All our 10 members were present during the election and voted for our candidates, and we won the election,” Pardi taluka BJP president Mahesh Desai said.

In Jamnagar district’s Jamjodhpur taluka, the outgoing Congress president, Pratibha Kalariya, was booked in two cases of forgery and criminal conspiracy after she allegedly forged resignation letters of two members of the taluka panchayat even as her party lost power in the Wednesday’s election.

Two Congress members, Govind Varangiya and Manchha Babariya, filed complaints with the police late Tuesday, alleging that Kalariya used their letter pads for forging letters to the effect that they were resigning as members of taluka panchayat and that their resignations be accepted. They alleged that the president forged their resignation letter with an intent to prevent them from voting in favour of the BJP in Wednesday’s election for the post of president and vice-president.

“When I went to Jamjodhpur taluka panchayat at around 5 pm on Tuesday, I heard people saying that I had tendered my resignation and that it had been accepted by the president of the taluka panchayat. Upon enquiry, I came to know that somebody had forged my signature and sent the letter to the president on June 11, 2018 to the effect that I was resigning as member of the taluka panchayat and requesting the president to accept the same. The taluka panchayat president had accepted the resignation without consulting with me,” Varangiya stated in his complaint.

Based on separate complaints filed by Varangiya and Babariya, the Jamjodhpur police booked Kalariya in two separate cases under IPC sections 564 (punishment for forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) early on Wednesday.

Jamjodhpur police Inspector JA Bhagora said they were investigating the two cases, but added that nobody had been detained or arrested till Wednesday evening.

Incidentally, Pratibha Kalariya is mother of Chirag Kalariya, the sitting Congress MLA from Jamjodhpur Assembly constituency. Chirag had defeated then minister Chiman Sapariya in the Assembly election held in December last year.

As the general board of the panchayat convened in the morning, the duo approached development commissioner, pleading their so-called resignation letters be considered null and void and that they be allowed to vote in the election for the posts of president and vice-president. Early on Wednesday morning, the development commissioner issued an interim order, allowing the two turncoats to cast their votes in the election.

In the meantime, Congress suffered another jolt as its member Govind Dhrangu was taken ill while participating in the general board meeting in the morning and had to be hospitalised. This further reduced the Congress numbers to merely seven in in the 18-member general board of the taluka panchayat.

After the board reconvened at 3 pm, BJP fielded Congress rebel Bera as its candidate for election to the post of president and Sanjana Parmar for the post of vice-president. Congress nominated Govind Chavda and Rambhi Sagar, respectively. But Bera and Parmar emerged victorious by polling nine votes each against their Congress rivals’s seven each.

MLA Chirag Kalariya accused the authorities of acting in a biased manner. “Varangiya and Babariya had indeed resigned to take money from the BJP and join the ranks of the saffron party. But former minister Chiman Sapariya exercised his influence to get police cases registered and also get an order from development commissioner holding the two members eligible for casting their vote. Nonetheless, we shall take legal action against the trio,” Chirag said.