BJP set to sweep Gujarat panchayat polls

After a landslide win at Gujarat municipal elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to sweep the panchayat polls as well, reports said on Saturday.

The state?s 24 district panchayats, 208 taluka (block) panchayats and 53 municipalities went on polls on Thursday.

While counting is still on, as per the latest results, BJP is leading in 22 out of the 24 district panchayats. The party?s main rival Congress is leading in Gandhinagar and Tapi.

Out of 208 taluka panchayats, BJP is leading in 48 and Congress in 19.

Out of 53 municipalities, BJP and Congress are leading in 20 and 5 seats respectively

The political parties are battling over 4,875 district and block panchayat seats and 1,890 municipality seats.

?BJP?s clean sweep in the Gujarat polls is a message to the Congress,? party spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman told reporters on Saturday.

Earlier on Oct 12, BJP swept the municipal polls in Gujarat.

The six municipal corporations of Narendra Modi?s Gujarat-Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar -went on polls on Sunday (Oct 10).

BJP won 148 and its main rival Congress 38 of the 189 seats in Ahmedabad. Independents got three.

In Surat, BJP bagged 98 out of 114 seats, while Congress has again won in 14. Independents got two.

In Rajkot, BJP won 58 out of 69 seats.

In Vadodara, the BJP got 61 of the 75 seats. Congress has won 11 seats.

In Bhavnagar, BJP won in 41.

The BJP got 35 seats, Congress 16, Independents 6 in Jamnagar.

After the counting was over at 14 centres across the six cities, BJP wrapped up 441 out of 555 seats, while Congress bagged 100 and Independents won 14 seats.

On Sept 17, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi?s 61st birthday turned out to be a day of double celebrations for the BJP state unit as the party wrestled the Kathlal assembly seat from the Congress in a by-poll for the first time in five decades.

BJP’s Kanu Dabhi polled 62,120 votes against his nearest Congress rival Ghelabhai Zala?s 40,573 votes, winning the seat by a margin of over 21,000 votes.

This victory took the BJP?s tally in the state Assembly to 122 in a House of 182 members. The Congress has 54 legislators, while others hold six seats.

It was the maiden time that the BJP won the Kathlal seat since the formation of the Assembly constituency in 1960.