An internal dispute over unfinished civic works in Ahmedabad’s Shahpur ward escalated on October 9 after BJP corporator Jitendra Chauhan locked the office of an assistant city engineer at the ward office near the Dudeshwar water tank. The action prompted city BJP president Prerak Shah to summon all four corporators from the ward for a discussion on party discipline and pending development works.
The meeting was held at the party office in the presence of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s ruling party leader Jashubhai Thakor and general secretary Umang Nayak. The corporator’s submissions were heard, while details were also sought from municipal officials about the status of the works raised by him.
According to Thakor, Chauhan had proposed 32 works in the ward, of which 28 had been completed and four remained pending. He said the matter would be discussed further at an internal coordination meeting. Thakor also said Chauhan had previously been with the Congress before joining the BJP and being elected as a corporator, but understood the party’s discipline.
The account provided by the municipal administration presented a narrower status of the works. Ramya Bhatt, deputy commissioner of the AMC’s Central Zone, said two of the four works covered under the budget allocated to Chauhan had been completed. She said corporators were taken along for regular meetings with the local MLA and rejected the suggestion that officials were not listening to their representations or carrying out the works.
Chauhan had alleged that repeated requests relating to drainage, water supply and works under the corporator’s budget had not been acted upon. He warned that other municipal offices could also be locked if the works were not completed and demanded the resignation of the municipal commissioner.
The dispute has brought the working relationship between elected ward representatives and the municipal administration into focus. In the Shahpur case, the disagreement involves both the execution of local infrastructure works and the process through which complaints from corporators are handled. The differing figures cited by the BJP’s ruling party leader and the deputy commissioner concern the number of works completed, although the statements refer to different groupings of projects.
The episode is not the first lockout-related action involving BJP corporators or their family members in Ahmedabad. The report also refers to an earlier incident involving the husband of a woman corporator from Paldi and another involving a corporator from Asarwa. Following the Shahpur incident, the city BJP leadership has decided to take up the issue for further discussion at its internal coordination meeting.
