BJP poised to sweep polls in 6 Guj cities
AHMEDABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday appeared on course to retain power in six municipal corporations, winning 409 of the 474 seats where results were declared till evening.
Polling for 576 seats in Ahmedabad and five other civic corporations was held on February 21. The counting of votes began on Tuesday morning and is still underway.
While Congress has won 43 of the declared seats so far, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a new entrant in these elections, made impressive inroads by winning 18 seats so far.
A total of 192 seats in Ahmedabad, 72 in Rajkot, 64 in Jamnagar, 52 in Bhavnagar, 76 in Vadodara and 120 in Surat were up for grabs in the elections.
The AAP had fielded 470 candidates across the six corbency porations.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel expressed gratitude to the voters and BJP workers for the results.
“The grand victory of the BJP in these elections is the victory of the people of Gujarat. This is a grand victory of the politics of development of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Rupani said.
“The people of Gujarat have provided a subject to political analysts who can now study how the concept of anti-incumdoes not apply in the state,” he said.
“Many thanks and congratulations to all the winning candidates, BJP office-bearers, workers and the voters of Gujarat for the glorious victory of Bharatiya Janata Party in the elections,” Patel tweeted.
Ahmedabad had recorded the lowest turnout of 42.51 per cent, while Jamnagar saw the highest turnout of 53.38 per cent, followed by 50.72 per cent in Rajkot, 49.46 per cent in Bhavnagar, 47.84 per cent in Vadodara and 47.14 per cent in Surat. Of the total 1.14 crore voters registered in these major cities of Gujarat, 52.83 lakh had cast their ballots, the SEC said in a release.the Union home minister had cast his vote at Naranpura Sub Zonal Office in Ahmedabad, along with his family members on Sunday.
Elections to 81 municipalities, 31 district panchayats and 231 taluka panchayats are scheduled on February 28.