BJP nominates 14 to Surat Municipal School Board

FOUR PERSONS from Surat are among 14 names nominated by the state BJP on Wednesday as potential contenders to run the Municipal School Board, Surat (MSBS). These include a co-convenor of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samithi and other party functionaries; some who run schools and medical stores; former syndicate members of the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU), including a former president of its women's wing.

Earlier, over 300 BJP functionaries had expressed interest to the party brass in connection with a place on the MSB, Surat.

The BJP list includes the name of advocate and notary Kiran Ghoghari, who notarised the affidavits of three proposers for Congress leader Nilesh Kumbhani for the parliamentary election of the Surat seat with the district election office in 2024. The three proposers of Kumbhani had notarised affidavits, claiming that the signatures on the nomination form of Kumbhani were not theirs and were "forged". On such notarised affidavits of Ghoghari, the BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared winner uncontested in the 2024 parliamentary election from Surat seat.

In April, the election to 120 seats of the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) were conducted and results declared. BJP candidates (the party had 93 councillors after the 2021 election) won 115 seats, while four seats went to AAP (down from 27 seats in the previous elections), and a single Congress candidate won (Congress scored zero in the previous election).

After the municipal election, a new board is set up in the MSB, Surat, which has also simultaneously completed its term.

On September 9, notification for the MSBS poll was issued, with the last date for submission of forms being September 23. The verification of forms will be done on October 1 and the election will be held on October 9.

There are a total of 15 members (including the Surat district education officer) to run the MSB, of whom 12 are elected and three are nominated by the state government. The nominated candidates have to go through the election process, and the voters are elected councillors of the SMC. A candidate needs seven votes to win, sources in the MSBS said. There are only four AAP councillors and a single Congress councillor.

The state parliamentary body had on Wednesday evening declared names of 14 candidates out of 300 profiles. Now these nominated leaders will have to submit their forms to MSBS by Thursday. The forms will be verified on 1st October, and if AAP or Congress put up candidates, the election will be held on 9th October.

These 14 names selected by the BJP party leadership includes, PAAS Surat co-convenor Dharmik Malaviya (who in the previous municipal election demanded the ticket from BJP and later announced that he would not fight elections), Advocate and Notary Kiran Ghoghari who was also past VNSGU syndicate member and Surat BJP legal cell member.

Mahesh Patel runs a high school in the Adajan area, while Rasik Patel is a member of the Surat Pharmacists Association. Shilaben Tarpara was the former president of the BJP Women's Wing.

Of the 14 names declared by the state BJP higher-ups, only four are native to Surat: Dharmishta Patel, Mayur Vaghela, Piyush Lakdawala, and Devanshi Joshi. In the last term, Rajendra Kapadia (a Surati Khatri) was made chairman of MSBS.

Former MSBS chairman Rajendra Kapadia said, "The AAP and Congress party do not have a sufficient number of candidates. If they don't field candidates, there will be no election and all the 14 names and Surat DEO will directly become members of the management committee of MSBS."

The MSBS runs around 365 municipal schools in Surat, imparting education to more than two lakh students in Gujarati, Hindi, English, Urdu, Odia and Marathi mediums - from Classes 1 to 8. These schools employ over 5,800 teachers.