Cong councillor stripped of leader of opposition post

Rajkot: High drama was witnessed in a garden run by the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) on Thursday after local Congress corporator Bhanu Sorani was stripped of the leader of opposition post and the civic body revoked all the facilities provided to her.Sorani, one of two Congress corporators remaining in the 72-member civic body, reached the RMC office in a rickshaw after her official car was taken over and started her office in a public garden.The civic body took back the post two days ago. In the 2020 municipal elections, Congress won just four of whom two were disqualified after they joined the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the December assembly polls.The ruling BJP decided to end the position of the leader of the opposition as Congress did not have sufficient numbers to be eligible for the post. Sorani’s office, phone, official car, and other facilities were also taken back. RMC did not provide seating arrangements also to the opposition corporators.She has appealed to the people to come to meet her with grievances regarding civic issues from 11am to 1pm in the garden daily. Office secretary Viral Bhatt and other Congress members also sat with her in the garden. According to a statement issued by Sorani, people came to meet her with various issues concerning street lights, water shortage, drainage and poor condition of roads.