Tomorrow on Sunday November 22, in the first phase of the crucial local body polls in Gujarat will be held for 570 seats of 143 wards of the 6 municipal corporations of including Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar. Ahmedabad the largest municipal body will decide the fate of 1856 candidates. Two seats (one each of Surat and Vadodara) has been won unopposed this time by the ruling BJP for which these polls are being termed as a litmus test of sorts in the backdrop of the Patel or Patidar reservation stir and the Bihar debacle. Information officer of the state election commission said that there were a total of 1856 candidates in the fray with 570 from BJP, 561 from Congress, 351 others and 374 independents. As far as security arrangements are concerned, total of 70 companies of paramilitary forces and 95 thousand state police personnel will be deployed for the conduct of free and fair elections. Of the total 12493 polling stations 1981 were hyper sensitive while 4984 have been declared sensitive, he said adding that around 2.20 lakh personnel have been deployed for conducting the poll procedure.
In Ahmedabad city , in 48 wards a little less than 40 lakh voters would vote from 8 am to 5 pm to elect their local representatives from among 192 BJP, 192 Congress, 85 others and 121 independent candidates.
There were around 2000 VIP voters in Ahmedabad including the Prime Minister, BJP national president Amit Shah, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, senior BJP leader and Gandhinagar MP L K Advani and Chief Minister Mrs. Anandiben Patel.
The 115 seats across 29 wards of Surat Municipal Corporation with around 26.27 lakh voters have 115 candidates each from the Congress and the BJP while 30 were others and 114 independents. 12.27 lakh voters of the 19 wards and 75 seats of Vadodara would caste votes to choose from among 75 each of the BJP and the Congress, 21 others and 55 independents while almost 8.85 lakh voters of 18 wards and 72 seats in Rajkot will caste votes with 72 candidates each form the BJP and the Cogress, 72 others and 30 independents in the fray. In Jamnagar around 4.11 lakh voters of 16 wards and 64 seats would vote to choose from among 64 BJP, 55 Congress, 49 others and 45 independent candidates. The 4.54 lakh voters of 13 wards and 52 seats in Bhavnagar will have the option to choose from 52 each form the BJP and the Congress, 34 others and 9 independent candidates.
The poll campaign with starlets like Amisha Patel, Paresh Raval (also BJP MP from Ahmedabad), Naresh and Hitu Kanodia pitching for the ruling party and Raj Babbar for the main opposition Congress ended last evening. Chief Minister Anandiben Patel had herself taken the lead for the party campaign with several meetings across the cities and a road show in Ahmedabad during which she made sentimental appeals to the voters to give her Bhai beej gift. Buoyed with the possibility of the support of a large chunk of Patel reservation stir supporters, who were said to be annoyed with the government, the congress focused more on keeping their anti government momentum up.
The second phase of the local polls in 56 municipalities, 31 district panchayats and 230 taluka panchayats will be held in second and the final phase on Novermber 29. Counting of votes for both the phases will be done on December 2.
