CM Vijay Rupani at Somnath Temple on Monday. PTI
Ahead of the Assembly bypoll in Jasdan, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday launched a host of projects worth Rs 88 crore for Jasdan and Vinchhiya talukas of Rajkot district and assured the residents that development projects in their areas would be taken up at “great speed”.
This comes two months after veteran Koli leader and five-time MLA Kunvarji Bavaliya quit the Congress to join the BJP. Bavaliya, who had won from Jasdan in the last year’s Assembly election on a Congress ticket, is all set to contest from the seat in the bypoll as a BJP nominee. The bypoll has been necessitated by the resignation of Bavaliya as an MLA.
“You must have noticed that we are launching projects worth crores of rupees just when Kunvarjibhai (Bavaliya) is making his entry into the BJP. Jasdan is an important area of Rajkot. We have to see to it that it does not lag behind. Now, that your own Kunvarjibhai is part of the BJP government, you need not worry. The government is working full-fledged to solve the problems of every village,” Rupani said while addressing a public meeting at Kanesara after launching several projects.
Among the projects launched for Jasdan taluka included Rs 5 crore minor irrigation project — Kanesara-II irrigation scheme, widening of the Kamlapur-Bhupgadh road at the cost of Rs 25 crore, and two drinking water pipelines for Bhadla and Santhali villages. At the same function, Rupani dedicated five projects to public completed at a cost of Rs 55 crore. They include the Rs 14 crore Vinchhiya Seva Sadan, the building housing offices of mamltadar, a Rs 6 crore horse-breeding centre at Hingolgadh village, the Jasdan-Gadhda road widened, a Rs 20 crore water supply pipeline between Babra and Kotda Pitha and a bridge across Ghelo river near Ghela Somnaht temple near Jasdan.
Since Bavaliya defected to the BJP, this was the first time that Rupani shared the stage with the former Congress leader at his constituency.
Hitting out at the Congress, Rupani said that 63-year-old Bavaliya had made the right decision by joining the BJP.
“The Congress is in shambles. Kunvarjibhai has taken the decision at the right time… He was the working president of the Congress for entire Gujarat. But he quit everything, and when the country is marching forward under the leadership of (Prime Minister) Narendrabhai (Modi), he has joined the BJP for the sake of people of this area, so that the problems faced by the people in the area get solved, so that this area is developed,” said Rupani, adding that the Congress candidate will lose deposit in the coming bypolls at Jasdan.
Addressing the gathering, Bavaliya said: “During my visits to the villages after the (last year’s) Assembly election, people would point out that though I was working very hard after becoming an MLA, something was still missing. This was pinching me,” he said.