Gujarat panchayat polls announced

GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat will be virtually in election mode for over a month in October in view of polls to nearly all the local self-government bodies in the state.

Elections to the district and taluka panchayats and municipalities will be held on Oct 21, the state election commission announced here Thursday.

Already, elections to six of the seven municipal corporations are slated to be held Oct 10.

Announcing the schedule, state election commission secretary Prakash Shah said the model election code of conduct had come into force with immediate effect.

Under the schedule announced Thursday, 24 of the 26 district panchayats, 208 of the 225 taluka panchayats and 53 municipalities would go to the polls Oct 21.

The notification for the elections would be issued Sep 27 and Oct 4 would be the last date of filling nominations. Counting of votes would be taken up Oct 23 and the entire process would be completed by Oct 29. Shah said the entire polling would be held through electronic voting machines.

Meanwhile, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went into full poll gear Thursday, beginning a three-day session of its state parliamentary board here to select the candidates for the elections to the municipal corporations.

According to state Congress president Siddhartha Patel, his party hoped to announce the final list of candidates for all the six municipal corporations by Sep 22. The BJP controls all the six municipal corporations of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar going to the polls.