Congratulating the newly elected Sarpanchs across the state, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) working president Hardik Patel claimed that candidates supported by his party have won in more than 50 per cent seats of the gram panchayat elections held in over 10,000 villages of the state.
The statement comes a day after BJP spokesperson and education minister Jitu Vaghani had Wednesday claimed 80 per cent of the sarpanchs and elected members of the gram panchayats were aligned with the BJP.
In a statement released Thursday, Patel said the BJP had caused harm to the three-layer governance system of Gujarat and it is the youth who can bring about the change.
“The elected Sarpanchs, as per their capabilities, perform a great role in the development of Gram Panchayat through which a new Gujarat will be rebuilt. The young leaders who had emerged from anti-establishment agitations in Gujarat have been elected as Sarpanchs and Deputy Sarpanchs this year. The youth should come into politics and the way will be laid through gram panchayat politics,” Patel said, a day after the gram panchayat election results.
He urged all young sarpanchs to come up with a blueprint of the development of their gram panchayat. “By centralising power, the BJP has caused harm to the three-level governance system of Gujarat,” Patel stated.
Attacking the BJP-led state government over the farmers’ issue, Patel said, “The farmers have financially fared poor, often forcing them to die by suicides.
Whenever elections come closer, the BJP makes tall promises to them. However, in times of distress, they choose to open their coffers to their chosen industrialists. They can give Rs 30 lakh crore to the industrialists and also forget their loans; however, when it comes to waiving farmers’ loans, the government says that it doesn’t have any money.”