BJP snatches Gandhinagar Corporation from Cong

In what could be dubbed a repeat of 2011, the ruling BJP was able to snatch power at Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) from Opposition Congress.

With this, the BJP now controls all the 8 municipal corporations (Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh and Gandhinagar) across Gujarat.

In a high-drama, Congress councillor Pravin Patel switched sides to BJP, alongwith one of his associates, swinging the majority in the 32-seat GMC towards BJP. Both, Congress and BJP, were tied in GMC after winning 16 seats each in the recently concluded polls.

The Congress had secured 18 seats in the last elections 5 years ago, when Narendra Modi was the chief minister. However, Congress lost its control over GMC as 3 of its members defected to the BJP, which had 15 seats. GMC then had 33 seats, which were reduced to 32 after delimitation.

With a tie between the 2 parties this time, the election to the post of mayor and deputy mayor was slated for Friday. Accordingly, a board meet was called. It is during this meet that Pravin Patel rejoined BJP and was elected as mayor of GMC.