After landslide victory in Surat, BJP says there won’t be Opp Leader in city body

Officers counting votes for the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections at Gandhi Engineering College (GEC), in Surat on Tuesday. (ANI Photo)The BJP registered a landslide victory in the Surat Municipal Corporation elections, winning 115 of the 120 seats. The AAP, which won 27 seats in the 2021 civic body elections, has been reduced to four seats and the Congress, which had no seats in the previous city body, managed to win a seat.After the results are out, the BJP said in a release that there won’t be an official Opposition in the city body. To qualify for the Opposition Leader position, a party must have at least 10% of the total seats in the elected body. Surat BJP president Paresh Patel dedicated the victory to the people of Surat and said they had “shown faith in the BJP” and “appreciated the development works” done in Surat by the previous city body. The BJP had fielded Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leaders such as Alpesh Katheriya and Dharmik Malaviya for campaigning for the April 26 polls to ensure support of the Patidar community voters in Surat, which the BJP thinks had been missing in the two SMC elections. The strategy seems to have worked as the BJP not only won the Patidar-dominated seats in the SMC but also managed to retain the seats it won in the last two elections. In the 2021 SMC election, AAP candidates won four seats in each wards 2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17 and two seats in ward 7 and a single seat in ward 8. Among these seats, AAP candidates lost all but those seats in ward17. Among the key APP candidates lost in the elections include AAP state general secretary Manoj Sorathiya and Leader of the Opposition in the last SMC body Payal Sakariya. AAP’s national leaders had campaigned in Surat for AAP candidates, but in vain. After the results were out, Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil released a video reminding the AAP of his open challenge to the party before the polls and said that people had considered the fact of ‘AAP leaders leaving the party and joining the BJP’ before casting their votes.Story continues below this ad “In the last SMC election (2021), we declared ‘Congress Mukt Surat city’, and we succeeded in it, and this time, only a single candidate of the Congress won the election. In the current SMC election, we succeeded up to 90 to 95 per cent on our promise of ‘AAP Mukt Surat’ as only four candidates in a single ward won the elections,” the Union minister said in the video. “In the 2021 local body elections, the BJP won 493 municipal corporation seats across the state, while the Congress was limited to 55 seats, and AAP got only 27 seats (all in Surat). In the current elections, on behalf of BJP workers, I gave a challenge to the AAP to retain their 27 seats in Surat. Only four AAP candidates won. Before casting votes, the voters kept in mind that the AAP leaders had left their party and joined the BJP.” In a press release, the Surat BJP said: “A unique political situation has again emerged in the history of Surat Municipal Corporation. In 1995, the BJP had eliminated the opposition party by winning 98 out of 99 seats. Years later, the same kind of political scene has come to the fore. In the current elections, the influence of the opposition has been reduced. As per the rule, the post of opposition leader is not available without 10% of the seats. As a result, the city body will now function without an official opposition. In 2000, the Congress had a strong presence with 25 seats. In 2015, the Congress showed more influence with 36 seats. In 2021, the Aam Aadmi Party entered the opposition with 27 seats.” Manoj Sorathiya, who also lost the election, said they accept the people’s verdict.Story continues below this ad “In this election, we have raised people’s issues and fought strongly against the BJP. In fact, this election was not only a fight against the BJP but also against the entire system. Despite this, the people of Surat voted for the AAP in large numbers. The AAP lost many s