Voting tomorrow in Gujarat, 10,000 candidates in the fray, reputation of AAP, BJP, Congress at stake

The local and municipal body elections to be held in Gujarat on Sunday will see a multi-cornered contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. Whereas All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is expecting to create problems for these parties.

The challenge for BJP is to maintain its political dominance that has continued for almost three decades in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

Voting will start at 7 am and end at 6 pm. If necessary, re-polling will be held the next day and counting of votes will take place on April 28.

A total of 9,992 local representatives are contesting elections in 15 municipal corporations, 84 municipalities, 34 district panchayats and 260 taluka panchayats, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot, with more than 4.18 crore voters eligible to exercise their franchise.

The elections are being held under the revised norms for Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation, which required extensive delimitation and reorganization of wards in many districts.

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Political analysts believe that the election results will reflect the mood of the voters in the state, which will be an important signal ahead of the 2027 assembly elections. The election campaign included rallies, road shows and door-to-door meetings.

Civic issues such as road conditions and drinking water supply were prominently raised in the elections, while leaders also raised broader issues such as reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

Aam Aadmi Party is trying to increase its presence

Gujarat politics has traditionally been dominated by BJP and Congress, but Aam Aadmi Party is trying to increase its presence.

At the beginning of the election campaign, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was ahead of other parties. Party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagwant Maan Addressed several rallies across Gujarat.

This is the first time for AAP that the Kejriwal-led party is contesting about 5,000 seats in the local elections.

Other candidates include Nationalist Congress Party, AIMIM and independent candidates.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi campaigned in the last phase by addressing public meetings in Ahmedabad and Bhuj. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel campaigned extensively on behalf of BJP.

Prominent candidates include former Gujarat cadre IPS officer ML Ninama, former radio jockey Abha Desai and former AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani.

Ninama will contest from Odh seat of Shamlaji taluka in Aravalli District Panchayat elections, while Bhayani has been made the candidate by BJP from Bhesan seat of Junagadh District Panchayat.

Desai is popularly known as RJ Abha. She is contesting as a Congress candidate from Ward No. 10 of Rajkot Municipal Corporation.

In March 2021, BJP once again won a landslide victory in the local elections in Gujarat. It went far ahead of rival Congress by winning 6,236 out of 8,470 seats in various municipalities.

The BJP then maintained its dominance over all the six municipal corporations, apart from 81 municipalities, 32 district panchayats and 231 taluka panchayats.

Notably, elections will also be held for the first time in nine newly formed municipal corporations including Navsari, Gandhidham, Morbi, Vapi, Anand, Nadiad, Mehsana, Porbandar and Surendranagar.

Who will vote where?

Union Home Minister Amit Shah Including senior BJP leaders will cast their votes on Sunday. Shah will cast his vote at Naranpura sub-regional office in Ahmedabad at 11 am, while Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel will cast his vote at Shilaj Primary School.

State BJP president Jagdish Vishwakarma and Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghvi will exercise their franchise at polling stations in Ahmedabad and Surat respectively.

Before voting, Patel appealed to voters to ensure ‘100 per cent voting’ and described the election as a ‘sacred festival of democracy’.

Meanwhile, three-tier security arrangements have been made for the elections, which include CCTV surveillance and deployment of special squads in sensitive areas.

Director General of Police KL N Rao said security covered around 29,000 polling buildings and more than 49,000 polling stations. Booths have been classified into sensitive, highly sensitive and normal categories based on standard operating procedures.