Test for BJP as Gujarat civic polls counting begins
Votes for the crucial civic polls in Gujarat, the first major elections in the state after Anandiben Patel took over from Narendra Modi as chief minister, are being counted on Wednesday.
According to ANI, early trends show BJP having a slight edge over Congress in Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat.
The polls are dubbed a test for the ruling BJP, coming against the backdrop of violence-ridden Patel quota protests and the party’s crushing defeat in the Bihar assembly election.
Voting for six municipal corporations was held on November 26, while that for 31 district panchayats, 230 taluka panchayats and 56 municipalities was held on November 29.
The six municipal corporations registered only 45% voter turnout, but elsewhere it was over 60%.
All the municipal corporations — Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar — are under the BJP’s control but the Congress is hoping to make a comeback in the state, cashing in on the Patel community’s resentment against the ruling party. The BJP rules local bodies in rural and semi-urban areas too.
The elections are seen as a challenge for the BJP and chief minister Anandiben as Patel leaders demanding inclusion of the community in the OBC reservation list had appealed to voters to vote for the Congress.
Hardik Patel, the 22-year-old spearheading the Patel stir, is in jail for more than a month now facing sedition charges.
The chief minister, during campaigning in Amreli, said Patels or Patidars cannot be given reservation in the OBC category. “It is not possible in accordance with constitutional provisions,” she said.
BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani and party chief Amit Shah were in their native state to vote in the first round. Prime Minister Modi, who as chief minister had introduced compulsory voting in civic elections, couldn’t vote because the poll date clashed with his visit to Malaysia for the ASEAN summit.
Voting was not mandatory, though, as the high court had stayed the state government’s order.
The state election commission conducted repolling on Tuesday at a booth each in Dahod and Mahisagar districts after “some people broke EVM machines when polling was underway”, an official said.
Read full article: Hindustan Times
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