After new mayors and other office-bearers in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, the BJP in Gujarat on Tuesday announced the names of new mayors and officers-bearers of civic bodies for other cities, including Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, and Bhavnagar.
The party has picked Dakshesh Mavani as the new mayor of Surat. He has replaced Hemani Boghawala, whose two-and-a-half-year term is ending. The party has replaced the entire team along with the mayor, deputy mayor, standing committee chief, leader of the ruling party in the civic body, and members of various committees.
In the 120-seat Surat civic body, the BJP has 93 corporators, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the only Opposition party with 27 corporators, some of whom joined the BJP but are still AAP members in the civic body on paper.
The new team includes Naresh Patil as deputy mayor and Rajan Patel as the chief of the Standing Committee, the highest decision-making body of the Surat Municipal Corporation.
In Rajkot, the party has picked Nayanaben Padhediya as the mayor, and Narendrasinh Jadeja as her deputy in the municipal corporation, and Jaimin Thaker as the head of standing committee.
The State BJP decided the names of the new officer-bearers for all six municipal corporations in a series of meetings.
The ruling party has decided to replace all the existing teams in all six municipal corporations, district panchayats, municipalities and taluka panchayats as part of its ‘no-repeat’ formula to give a chance to new members, ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Bharat Barad has been made mayor of Bhavnagar, and Mona Parekh his deputy. In Jamnagar, first-time municipal corporator of the ruling BJP, Vinod Khimsuriya, has been elected as mayor, with Krishna Sodha as the deputy mayor.
The party also named new chiefs for several municipalities across the State on Tuesday.
