Bar council polls: Landslide win for pro-BJP lawyers

Pro-BJP lawyers have, by and large, emerged victorious in the elections for the Bar Council of Gujarat (BCG), defeating, in most cases, pro-Congress advocates. The results of the election were declared by the election commissioner late on Monday night after nine days of counting of ballots involving a complicated system of calculating votes.

The victorious lawyers and their supporters are understandably elated. They shouted slogans hailing the newly-elected members of the council outside Gujarat high court. The new 25-member body will now elect the president and other committee members
before June.

“We are glad that our panel has emerged victorious. It had the trust of the lawyers’ fraternity of the state,” said JJ Patel, former chairman of BCG and convenor of the BJP legal cell.
This is the second time that a pro-BJP panel has won the elections of the prestigious lawyer’s body. Rajkot BJP’s legal cell convenor Dilip Patel was the first to be declared elected with a huge margin.

“We have worked hard and were dedicated to the welfare of lawyers. The Congress also worked hard but it is our effort and planning that resulted in our victory,” JJ Patel said.

The BCG elections this time had become a matter of prestige for those in the fray. Candidates spent lakhs of rupees on parties, feasts and get-together meals and freely appealed to caste and community sentiments during the canvassing for the polls.

The counting of votes started on May 14 and continued without break till late on Monday night. Seven candidates - DK Patel, Karansinh Vaghela, RS Trivedi, KA Barot, AC Kella, JR Gandhi and MM Anadkat - have been declared elected by the assistant election commissioner RC Jani.

There was close to 41% voter turnout in Ahmedabad in the BCG elections that were held on May 11. Of the 14,000 registered voters in the city, 6,266 used their franchise to elect 25 office-bearers. For the first time in the history of the BCG, 99 candidates were in the fray for 25 seats. Hence many in the association saw it as a closely-contested poll.

Around 19 out of the total number of candidates are from A’bad metropolitan court, the highest from any court of the state.

Cong bigwigs bite the dust

The elections of the Bar Council of Gujarat (BCG) have proved humiliating for the Congress as some of the top lawyer members of the party have been defeated.

Election convenor and Congress leader BM Mangukia lost the election as did VH Kanara, joint convenor of the Congress’ legal cell. Kanara had come into the limelight when suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt was arrested for allegedly threatening police constable KD Panth.

Kanara was made a co-accused in the case, allegedly because he had taken the signature of Panth on documents that were to be submitted before the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT).

Till late in the night on Monday (the final day of counting of votes), leader of Mehsana Congress, Manuji Thakor, was nowhere near victory. Bharuch district congress president Kiran Rathod was among prominent lawyer-members of the Congress who were defeated in the elections.

On the other hand, former BJP MP and MLA Vijay H Patel won handsomely. Incidentally, he was recently elected to the Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association (GHAA).

CK Patel of Anand has also won. He is not connected with any party but he was the lawyer of the accused in the Ode massacre case. DK Patel, who is an office-bearer of the Rajkot BJP legal cell, has won by a huge margin. He is likely to be elected chairman of the BCG.

Other pro-BJP lawyers who were close to victory in the last round of counting of votes include Anil Kella, Bharat Bhagat, Nalin Patel and Gopinath Amin.

There were also a few politically neutral contenders in the fray, said sources. Looking at the trend during the counting on Monday, the Congress will have to remain content with five to six seats out of the total 25 seats in the BCG.