Corporators seek bigger role, eye Assembly seats

Ahmedabad : ELEVENof the 38 Congress corporators in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), including their leader Badruddin Shaikh, have soughtparty tickets tocontest in the upcoming Assembly polls. Besides Shaikh, these include Naranbhai Patel for Naranpuraseat,Haji Israrbaig Mirza forVejalpur seat,Dariapur corporators Hasan Khan Pathan, Nazneen Bastawala, Vinod Modi and Kalupur’s Surendra Baxi, who all have been asking for Dariapur seat.

Liyaqat Ghori of Raikhad and Badruddin Shaikh of Behrampura wards have set

their sights on Jamalpur seat. Asarwa corporator Mangal Surajkar is staking claim for Asarwa Assembly seat while Taufiq Khan Pathan of Rakhialward wants to contest for Shaherkotda seat. Vatva corporator Atul Patel has shown interest in the newly carved Vatva seat.

In the BJP, two party corporators, Gautam Shah and Darshana Vaghela, are in the race for tickets to contest the Assembly polls.

BJP vice-president I K Jadeja, who was one of the three observers for Ahmedabad city, said it was not uncommon for corporators to ask for a ticket.

In the present government, BJP MLAs Pradeepsinh Jadeja (Asarwa), Faruq Shaikh (Kalupur), Gitaben Patel (Sabarmati), Rakesh Shah (Ellisbridge) andMaya Kodnani (Naroda) were first elected as corporators before they won anAssembly seat.

In Vadodara, BJP MLA Bhupendra Lakhawala has served as corporator for two consecutive five-year terms from1981 to1987.

Since 1995, Lakhawala has been elected as BJP MLA for four consecutive terms and has served as labour & employmentminister, education and protocol minister, and civildefence,home guard and GRD (Gram Rakshak Dal) minister.