BJP Workers Celebrate as Party Stakes Claim on 37 Seats, Congress Ahead on 3 Seats

The counting of votes for the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) elections, which were held on Sunday, began on the wee hours of the morning of Tuesday. With BJP in the lead, many party workers and supporters were captured dancing and rejoicing outside the counting centre to their hearts content as BJP staked its claim on 37 of the 44 seats.

The Gujarat State Election Commission (SEC) authorities said the polling remained peaceful without any reportage of violence.

A total of 162 candidates are in the fray for the 44 seats across 11 wards in GMC. The turnout in by-elections for three seats in two municipal corporations of Ahmedabad and Junagadh and seats in municipalities and district panchayats, which were also held on Sunday, also remained low at 27.20, 47.99 and 57.08 percent, respectively, the official added.

By-election to seats in taluka panchayats recorded an average turnout of 72.64 percent, the state election commission said. The fight is a three-cornered one with the AAP putting in a concerted effort apart from traditional rivals BJP and Congress.

These polls were held after the ruling BJP removed Vijay Rupani from the chief minister’s post and gave Bhupendra Patel charge of the top seat recently.

Notably, this is the third general election of GMC. The state capital was awarded status of Municipal Corporation in 2010-11 after an order of Gujarat High court. The order came on a petition moved by some concerned citizens of Gandhinagar city in September 2009. Order was passed by a division bench of the then Chief Justice of Gujarat HC K S Radhakrishnan and Justice Akil Kureshi.

A total of 2.82 lakh voters–1.45 lakh males and 1.36 lakh females–were expected to cast votes in the elections. The SEC had set up a total of 284 polling booths of which 129 were marked as ‘sensitive’.