The Gujarat Election Commission on Wednesday announced the election schedule for Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation and Okha and Thara Municipalities. Voting for these municipal bodies will be held on October 11. Voting will be held from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Counting of votes will be held on October 13. The notification for the election will be released on September 21.
According to the Election Commission, the last date for filing nomination papers is September 26, while the verification will take place on September 28. Candidates can withdraw their nomination papers till September 29. The commission said that if necessary, re-polling would be held on October 12.
A model code of conduct has been implemented in the respective areas with the announcement of elections. Gandhinagar has a total of 44 municipal corporation seats in 11 wards. In the last elections held in October 2021, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 41 of the 44 seats, while the Congress won two and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) one. The commission said that the elections to the three local bodies will be held through Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
It should be noted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had earlier won a landslide victory in the 2021 municipal elections. The party won 6,236 out of 8,470 municipal seats. The BJP then retained its dominance in all six municipal corporations, as well as 81 municipal corporations, 32 zilla panchayats and 231 taluka panchayats. Seven councilors of Owaisi’s party, AIMIM, were elected in Ahmedabad. Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP performed brilliantly, entering Gujarat politics as a third force. In Surat Municipal Corporation, AAP surprised everyone by winning 27 out of 120 seats. This time, AAP is contesting on 5,000 seats.