The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday registered a landslide victory in the Gandhinagar municipal corporation (GMC) elections, bagging 41 out of 44 seats that went to polls on Sunday. The results have been a major setback for Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that won two and one seats respectively. This was the first major election after Bhupendra Patel took charge as the chief minister of Gujarat. The BJP is in power in the civic body. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his gratitude towards the people of Gujarat for BJP’s victory in the civic polls, stating that the results “reaffirm the deep-rooted bond between the people of Gujarat and BJP”.
BJP and Congress had fielded their candidates on all 44 seats, while the AAP contested from 40 seats. The GMC recorded a voting percentage of 56.24% out of 2.8 lakh registered voters.
In the previous Gandhinagar municipal corporation elections, Congress gave a tough fight to the BJP as both parties bagged 16 seats each. However, a surprise defection from Congress councillor Pravin Patel and his aide helped BJP form the body in the corporation, with Patel becoming the mayor of Gujarat’s capital city. After the AAP won 27 out of 120 contested seats in the Surat municipal corporation election held earlier this year, all eyes were on the new entrant. The AAP’s vote share in the GMC elections stands at nearly 17%, but the three-pronged contest seems to have worked against Congress.
Apart from GMC, three other municipalities—Okha, Bhanvad, and Thara—went to the polls on Sunday. The voter turnout in Okha and Bhanvad (both in Devbhumi-Dwarka district) was 55.07% and 62.27% respectively, while Thara (Banaskantha district) recorded 73.55% voter turnout. The local body elections were earlier scheduled for April, but the disastrous Covid-19 second wave pandemic forced the state election commission to postpone them. Meanwhile, BJP workers and supporters started celebrations as early trends showed that the party was leading in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation elections.