This Congress candidate has released his own independent manifesto

SURAT: When the election manifesto of the Congress party is still awaited for Gujarat elections, Congress candidate from Surat (East) has released his own independent manifesto.

Congress candidate from Surat (East), Nitin Bharucha, who is a new face has listed around 22 poll promises in his independent manifesto, concerning the people of his constituency.

A former councillor and textile businessman, Nitin Bharucha is fielded against BJP's new face Arvind Rana from the sensitive Surat (East) constituency. He is the only Khatri candidate among all the 24 candidates of both the parties.

In his independent manifesto, Bharucha has touched upon the burning issues of the constituency and the city in general. This includes construction of cable-bridge monorail from railway station to Chowk Bazaar, setting up of the hawkers and food zones in his constituency, increased water supply to the city as per the Riparian Act, allowing the MLA grant for the repair of old and dilapidated structures, renewing the FS Parekh technical institute in Chowk Bazaar on the lines of Gandhi Engineer college.

Upgrading the state-of-the-art facilities at the old Civil Hospital in Chowk Bazaar and establishing medicine department for providing generic medicines to the poor-class patients, providing a separate space for the weekly 'Shanivari' Bazaar on the government land etc.

It may be recalled that post-Godhra riots in 2002, the Congress had won a lone seat of Surat (east) assembly constituency. In 2002, Congress candidate Manish Gilitwala managed to win the seat with a slender margin of 1,952 votes due to division among Khatri community voters over the fielding of late Gulabdas Khasi as a saffron party candidate.

This constituency has about 1.96 lakh voters and of them 84,000 belong to the minority community. Rana, Khatri and Modhvanik communities along with Jains constitute 1.08 lakh voters.

Surprisingly, Congress had fielded a minority candidate from Surat (east) for the first time in the last five assembly elections in 2012. Senior Congress leader and AICC member Kadir Pirzada had to taste a bitter defeat from BJP's heavyweight former minister of state for transport Ranjit Gilitwala in this constituency. A former mayor, Gilitwala, was elected to the assembly for the first time in 2007, but with a slender margin of over 1,900 votes.

Talking to TOI, Bharuch said, "I have released my own manifesto for the people of my constituency and the rest of the city. This will give a fair idea about the area of my work when I will be elected in the Gujarat assembly"

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by Melvyn Reggie Thomas via Surat News, Latest Surat News Headlines & Live Updates - Times of India