300 lawyers register as BJP page committee presidents in Surat

Around 300 lawyers of Surat city registered as page committee presidents at a mobilisation programme organised by the local unit of the BJP at its head office here on Thursday. This follows an event on December 19 where 100 doctors had registered as page committee presidents.

Presiding over the event, BJP state president CR Paatil advised his colleagues “not to waste time like Gandhiji”, looking for a lost pencil.

Referring to Surat city president Niranjan Janjmera’s “meticulousness”, Paatil said, “Modisaheb (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) says that every MP and politician should keep a PA (personal assistant)… He also says… that he should be like Mahadevbhai Manibhai Desai, who was Gandhiji’s PA . He once said that people had come to meet Gandhiji and Gandhiji was busy looking for something, much time was lost, there was a queue outside and it kept growing… People began wondering what would Gandhiji be doing? . He was looking for a missing piece from a pencil… At that point his PA came out and told the people — ‘look at Gandhiji’s meticulousness, a piece of a pencil is missing and he is looking for it’. Had he not said that what would people have thought? That he was wasting time looking for a piece from a pencil and has kept everyone waiting. It is because of this meticulousness, he resided in people’s hearts. Niranjanbhai is somewhat similar. I want to tell him not to waste time looking for a piece from a pencil, like Gandhiji.”

He also said that page committees have increased the strength of BJP “multiple times”.

The experiment of appointing page committees brought victory to the BJP in the recently concluded assembly bypolls on eight seats in Gujarat, he said, adding, “When we started the drive in the state, we did not imagine that the workers would take active part in it… Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also become page committee president, followed by Chief Minister Vijaybhai Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, and all state cabinet ministers, as well as Union ministers Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh Mandaviya, apart from all MPs and MLAs. Their active involvement motivated the BJP workers…”

The state BJP president added that it is the responsibility of the workers to ensure victory for BJP candidates in the upcoming elections to municipal corporations, district panchayats and taluka panchayats, where around 11,000 candidates will be in fray.

Advocate Mehboob Tailor, who was among the five Muslims appointed as page committee presidents, said, “We like the BJP ideology… so we have become page committee presidents. In our area, many people have submitted their documents to the BJP head office.”