BJP sweeps local bodies polls in Gujarat

GANDHINAGAR - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) virtually swept the Gujarat local bodies elections Saturday bagging 22 of the 24 district panchayats and 36 of the 52 municipalities.

The party’s winning streak appeared to continue in the taluka panchayat elections as early result trends showed that the BJP was set to bag 176 of the total 208 talukas. The Congress had an upper hand in 30.

Polls to 24 district panchayats, 208 taluka panchayats and 53 municipalities with 2.48 crore eligible voters took place Oct 21.

A total of 17,908 candidates were in the fray for 804 district panchayat seats, 4,071 taluka panchayat seats and 1,890 municipality seats.

Earlier this month, the BJP took control of all the six key municipal corporations of Gujarat — Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar.

In the just-concluded district panchayat polls, the Congress won the Gandhinagar and Tapi seats.

But the party lost control of Dabhoi municipality in Vadodara district which is part of the assembly constituency of Gujarat Congress president Siddhartha Patel.

The four taluka panchayats in which the Congress had an edge were Kapadvanj, Dehgam, Keshod and Bagasara.

Though the Congress lost the Porbandar district panchayat poll, it was tied with the BJP in Porbandar municipality with 21 seats each out of a total of 42.

The Congress controlled six district panchayats, 20 taluka panchayats and six municipalities before the polls.