Gujarat civic polls: Counting today; BJP, Congress confident of victory

AHMEDABAD: The counting for Gujarat local body polls will begin at 8 am on Monday and the results will be declared on the same day.

The voting for the 75 nagar palikas  (municipalities) in Gujarat had concluded peacefully on Saturday with Dahod recording the highest turnout of 76.67 percent while Rajkot had recorded the lowest turnout of 50.17 percent.

The polling was also conducted for two district panchayats, 17 taluka panchayats and 1,400 village panchayats.

The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), which had swept the local elections by winning 107 seats out of total 123 seats in 2016, is eyeing a second consecutive victory.

The State Election Commission also conducted voting for 522 municipal wards and 1988 seats. A total of 2763 polling stations were set up out of which 530 booths were declared sensitive and 95 super-sensitive. Over 15,000 polling personnel were deployed on the field. 

Gujarat State Election Commission(SEC) Varesh Sinha had announced the local body poll schedule on January 23.

In 2016, BJP had won two municipalities and one taluka panchayat along with majority seats of various other local bodies. Congress had managed to capture just 16 seats in the local body polls last year. 

As per the final turnout declared by the Gujarat State Election Commission, BJP had registered a victory in Vapi municipality of Valsad district by capturing 41 out of total 44 seats. Only three seats went to Congress.