Surat: Newcomer Priti Patel (44) , who has been elected on a BJP ticket from Pasodara seat of Kamrej taluka, will take over as Surat district panchayat president. The BJP on Tuesday selected her as president and Hitendrasinh Vasiya as deputy president of the district panchayat. Selected candidates have filled up their forms for the respective posts and will be pronounced elected on Wednesday.
This is the first time that there will be a woman president in Surat district Panchayat. Priti is relatively newcomer in politics as she joined the party and active politics only 2.5 years ago when she became a member of the district panchayat. According to her, she is an undergraduate as she has studied up to second year BCom and has one son.
There were two other women also in the race to become first woman district panchayat president of Surat — one being former taluka panchayat president of Palsana Bhavini Patel and the other being Olpad taluka panchayat president Sharmistha Patel. However, the party leadership decided to go with first-timer Priti.
Hitendrasinh is a BJP member from Sachin-Talangpore and is a former president of executive committee of Surat district panchayat.
It must be known that Surat district panchayat has a budget of Rs 55 crore. In Surat district panchayat, there are 40 seats, out of these 29 are with the BJP and 11 with the Congress.
Office-bearers of Surat district panchayat