Gujarat Civic Body Elections: BJP Steals The Lead Over Congress In Local Bodies

Following the state assembly election trend, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has stolen the lead over Congress in state municipal body elections too.

Votes were being counted for polls held for 75 municipalities, which have seen the BJP win in 47 seats with the Congress a distant second at 16. 4 seats were bagged by independents while the BSP and NCP won one each. Results for six seats are awaited. The Congress has however improved its share from the eight seats it held earlier.

A total of 1,400 Gram Panchayats also went to polls on Saturday (17 February) while for 295 panchayats, sarpanchs were chosen unanimously. Results for 1,127 panchayats were declared earlier on 6 February, with both major parties claiming victory over 70 per cent of the seats.

Village panchayat elections aren’t held on party tickets in India, however, candidates are usually affiliated with parties.

The results for 17 mandal panchayats and two zilla panchayats will also be declared along with the gram panchayat results. The two zilla panchayats were earlier held by Congress earlier but was transferred to the BJP after the elected members switched over to the party.