42% voter turnout recorded in polls to six Guj civic bodies

Elections to six municipalcorporations in Gujarat were conducted in a peaceful manneramid tight security and adherence to COVID-19 norms on Sunday,in which average voter turnout of around 42 per cent wasrecorded, officials said.

Polling for a total of 144 wards across six civicbodies- Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhavnagar andJamnagar- was held.

The voting process began at 7 am and went on till 6pm, with the turnout remaining low right from the morning.

Ahmedabad recorded the lowest turnout of 38.73 percent, while Jamnagar recorded the highest turnout of 49.86 percent.

Rajkot recorded a turnout of 47.27 per cent, Bhavnagar43.66 per cent, Surat 43.52 per cent and Vadodara 43.47 percent, as per the provisional figures updated on the website ofthe State Election Commission after voting concluded.

A voter turnout of 42.21 per cent was recorded acrossthe polls to these six bodies, it said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah cast his vote along withhis family members at a polling booth in Naranpura ward ofAhmedabad Municipal Corporation.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani voted in Rajkot, where hewas flown from Ahmedabad hours after testing negative forcoronavirus.

In a video message after the conclusion of theelection, State Election Commissioner Sanjay Prasad said thatvoting was largely peaceful.

''Voting concluded peacefully. There was no news of anymajor untoward incident, and people voted in a peacefulmanner. For this, I express my thanks to the voters, politicalparties, and administrative and police staff involved inelection duty,'' he said.

Prasad appealed to the voters to exercise theirfranchise in large numbers for the upcoming local body pollson February 28 and participate in the electoral process forthe formation of the new local bodies.

Except for a few instances of members of differentpolitical parties clashing in Ahmedabad and Surat, the processwent on largely in a peaceful manner.

Glitch in an EVM machine was reported at a pollingbooth in Ahmedabad.

In theses polls, the main contest was between the BJP,which has ruled the six corporations for the last severalterms, and the main opposition Congress.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had earlier claimed that itwould be an effective alternative to the BJP and Congress,while Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen (AIMIM) is making its debut in the local bodiespolls in the state as it fielded 21 candidates in six wards ofAhmedabad.

Around 32,000 policemen were deployed for securityduring the process of voting in 575 seats, with each wardhaving four corporators, officials said.

A total of 2,276 candidates were in the fray in thesesix civic bodies.

Besides, nine candidates contested the by-elections totwo seats in Junagadh Municipal Corporation.

The partywise candidates were as follows: 577 from theBJP, 566 from the Congress, 470 from the AAP, 91 from the NCP,353 from other parties and 228 Independents, they said.

Votes will be counted on February 23.

On February 28, elections to 31 districts and 231taluka panchayats and 81 municipalities will also be held inthe state.