Infighting rears ugly head in RMC

RAJKOT: Party clashes have begun to resurface within the ruling Congress the Rajkot Municipal Corporation RMC.
Despite having gained power after 25 years, the party has undergone a turmoil in the last three years, wherein factionalism has tainted its political image.
Experts go on to say it has completely failed to manage the civic administration. The party begun to feel the fissures around six months back when Ashok the Congress members, led by the Standing Committee chairman Meghji Rathore, challenged Dangar.
The BJP too tacitly supported the rebels, and eventually Dangar was stripped of the mayor’s post and Mansukh Chavda brought in on April 18, 2003.It was then that a concerned Congress high command sent in an observer, Bharat Parekh, from Mumbai to settle the dispute.
Rebels had then demanded their pound of flesh -- that Dangar should quit the district president’s post as well in return of their support. Dangar, in turn, laid a condition that none of the ‘rebels’ would ever be allowed to the 24 positions in the RMC. This was agreed upon mutually by both sides. In the compromise deal, Jashwantsinh Bhatti was appointed as the district president’ and Dangar became the regional secretary.
But, after six months of the deal, Dangar is crying foul over the fact that Bhatti and his supporters are pressing for induction of six members from the rebel group into the standing committee. They now demand a requisition sitting.
“Appointment of rebels in any of the key positions in the RMC is against the mutual agreement we made. So,we are bound to call for a requisition sitting in order to prove our point,� says deputy mayor Bharat Makwana.
Highly-placed sources also indicate that the suggestion to induct these six members into the standing committee has the support of the party high-command and have been made by the observer from Mumbai, Bharat Parekh himself.
Ashok Dangar,who claims to have 20 allies with him, is furious. “The compromise we arrived at shouldn’t have been broken. We are not calling a requisition meeting to grab power. We ae doing this as we feel tere is no option,� he says.
On the possibility of ‘superseding’ of the corporation, Mayor Mansukh Chavda says, “Its all becoming so dicey, but we will have to wait for the results of the requisition sitting.�
‘Superseding’ in the corporation is an absolute matter concerned with the state government and it would be too early to speculate as the only option available—because the legal aspects for same are also to be adhered too before framing any decision in this direction,� he added.
The scheduled general board meeting is on November 20 and the requisition meeting is supposed to be held sometime before.