Diu local body elections: BJP wins 6 of 13 seats unopposed

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has an upper hand in the elections to the Diu Municipal Council (DMC) as six of its 13 candidates have been declared winners unopposed as they were the only candidates left in the fray from their respective wards.

Four of the six winners are either Congress councillors who had defected to the BJP in the run-up to the election or their close relatives. As the Congress is not contesting the polls, Independents remain the only challengers to the saffron party.

A total of 36 candidates had filed nomination papers for the 13 seats of the local body polls in the Union Territory of Diu. During the scrutiny on June 21, the nomination papers of three of them were rejected on various grounds. Over the next two days, 12 candidates withdrew their candidature. With that, six BJP candidates were the only candidates from their respective wards and hence, were declared winners.

Those declared winners unopposed include Bhavna Dudhamal (Ward No.3), Dinesh Solanki (Ward No.5), Karuna Solanki (7)–all Congress councillors who had defected to the BJP in May. The unopposed winners also include Harshida Solanki (Ward No 13), the daughter-in-law of Bhagyavantiben Solanki, a Congress councillor who was bed-ridden but whose husband had declared in May that his wife was joining the BJP along with other Congress councillors. Days later, Bhagyavanti had succumbed to her illness.

The other two unopposed winners are Chintak Solanki (ward No.2) who is contesting his maiden election and Hemlata Solanki, one of the three sitting BJP councillors in the outgoing general board of the DMC.

In the remaining seven wards, the BJP candidates are in direct contest with lone candidates fielded by Umesh Patel of Daman and are contesting under the symbol of the autorickshaw. Only in Ward No.1, there is a three-way fight, while in Ward No.6, another Independent, other than the one fielded by Umesh Patel, is in direct contest with the BJP nominee Neeta Sandip, wife of Diu-Daman MP Lalu Patel’s personal assistant Sandip Jadav.

The withdrawal of the candidature leaves 15 candidates for seven seats for which polling will be held on July 7. However, by bagging six seats uncontested, the BJP has almost already reached the halfway mark and will need to win only one of the seven seats to formally end the 15-year-long Congress rule in the Diu civic body.

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The election is being held around seven months after Hitesh Solanki, then president of DMC, was removed by the Union Territory Administration citing a case of disproportionate assets registered by the CBI in 2016. That had rendered the Congress dispensation in DMC rudderless as the vice-president of the civic body had died a few months before Hitesh Solanki’s ouster. Despite enjoying an absolute majority in the 13-member general board where the BJP had only three councillors, the Congress never demanded a meeting to elect a new president and vice-president.

Meanwhile, in a dramatic move, seven of the nine Congress councillors changed their loyalty to the BJP in May, leaving only Hitesh Solanki and his brother Jitendra Solanki the two Congressmen standing.

Interestingly, the BJP has fielded four Congress turncoats while also giving tickets to a close relative of the fifth one. Four of them have won uncontested while Haresh Kapadiya is seeking re-election as a BJP candidate from Ward No.9. “Nikita Shah, the outgoing Congress councillor who had joined the BJP in May, did not seek a ticket while Ranjan Raju Vankar, another Congress councillor who joined the BJP, had demanded a BJP ticket but the party preferred Neeta Sandip over her,” a BJP source said.

Of the remaining seven BJP candidates, Hemlata and Haresh Kapadiya are sitting councillors while Sunit Solanki, Kridan Jentialal, Heena Sandip and Vaneshri Solanki are contesting their maiden elections. Hinakumari Solanki, the BJP candidate from Ward No.10, has previously contested election as an Independent.

While Hitesh Solanki could not be reached for a comment, Bipin Shah, the president of BJP’s Diu unit said they were winning the polls in a fair manner. “We didn’t ask anybody to withdraw their candidature and we have won the six seats uncontested in a democratic manner,” Shah told The Indian Express, adding, “In the campaigning, we are raising how Diu had to suffer during the Congress reign. We will also highlight that six of our candidates have already won and if more wins eventually, development of Diu will get a further boost.”

DMC elections were announced on June 12, hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Praful Patel, a BJP leader who is currently serving as the Administrator of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Diu and Daman, addressed a massive public meeting in Diu. The model code of conduct had come into force on June 12 and Diu collector Fwwrman Brahma, the election officer, said no complaint of violation was registered so far.