Polling for the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, Thara municipality and Okha municipality in Gujarat ended peacefully on Sunday, with tentative voter turnout recorded at 59.25 per cent, 81.18 per cent and 56.44 per cent respectively, the State Election Commission said.
Voting was held from 7 am to 6 pm in the three local bodies, along with bypolls to seats in various municipalities and district and taluka panchayats in the state. State Election Commission Joint Commissioner N K Damor said the turnout figures were tentative. Counting of votes is scheduled for October 13.
Damor said, “No major untoward incident took place. Voting was held peacefully.” The SEC had made arrangements for extensive police deployment and patrolling, particularly at sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling stations, to ensure free and peaceful voting through electronic voting machines.
In the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, elections were held for all 44 seats across 11 wards, with 130 candidates in the fray. The main contest was between the BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. The GMC has around 2.59 lakh voters. In the October 2021 polls, the BJP had won 41 of the 44 seats, while Congress had secured two seats and the AAP one.
In Okha municipality in Devbhumi Dwarka district, polling was held for 32 of the 36 seats across nine wards, as four seats had already been won unopposed. A total of 75 candidates contested the remaining seats. In Thara municipality in Banaskantha, elections were held in six wards comprising 24 seats, with 59 candidates in the fray. Bypolls were also held for one seat each in the Kheralu, Chhota Udepur and Bayad municipalities, besides seats in various district and taluka panchayats.
Overall, polling across the three local bodies and the bypoll seats was completed without any major incident, with the SEC putting the tentative turnout at 59.25 per cent in Gandhinagar, 81.18 per cent in Thara and 56.44 per cent in Okha ahead of counting on October 13.
– Ends
With PTI inputs
