Gujarat confidential: Power Tussle

Power tussle

Power struggle within the Vadodara city unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come out in the open with the local party executive trying to outdo the elected wing of its own party.

Last week, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) was at the centre of a controversy over proposed allotment of 75 open plots to private organisations. The opposition raised the issue of misuse of 46 plots allotted since 1993 when Mayor Keyur Rokadia announced that the VMC would “take back” all 46 plots allotted earlier.

However, before the official announcement from Rokadia, the BJP city unit issued a statement on the same. It also gave credit to the party city president Dr Vijay Shah for getting the VMC to remove encroachments. A senior elected representative of the party said, “We have never seen such kind of oneupmanship in the BJP unit before, at least in Vadodara. We are very disturbed about it as it is affecting the image of the party.”

Troll over pothole

The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has received flak after a video showing a man and a woman on a two-wheeler falling off after hitting a pothole went viral. The civic body was trolled for its Smart City claims and the video was also shared by Gujarat Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia.

Netizens have called out the VMC over the video, said to be of July 17. In the CCTV footage, which is of a road in the Akota area of the city, a man rides a two-wheeler with a woman on pillion during heavy rain and as they cross a stormwater drain, the front wheel of the two-wheeler hits a pothole. The vehicle loses balance and the riders fall off.

An official of the VMC said that the pothole was fixed shortly after the video came to light.