Gandhinagar, March 1 There was an average of around 64% polling in the local body elections for municipalities, district and tehsil panchayats in Gujarat on Sunday. Voting for 8,473 seats in municipalities, 980 in district panchayats and 4,773 in taluka panchayats took place across 36,008 booths. The counting of votes will take place on March 2.
According to the State Election Commission (SEC), around 64 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the elections to Gujarat's 81 municipalities, 31 district panchayats and 231 taluka panchayats which were held in a largely peaceful manner.
As per the figures provided by the State Election Commission (SEC), there was 58.82 percent voter turnout across 81 municipalities, 65.80 per cent in 31 district panchayats, and 66.60 per cent in 231 taluka panchayats.
The average voting percentage across all these local bodies together was around 63.74 per cent.
The SEC officials said voting for 8,473 seats, comprising 2,720 in 680 wards in 81 municipalities, 980 in 31 district panchayats and 4,773 in 231 taluka panchayats took place across 36,008 booths.
Out of them, 237 seats remained unopposed, and no forms were filled for two seats in taluka panchayat.
The elections were held on a total 8,235 seats for which the BJP had fielded 8,161 candidates, Congress 7,778, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 2,090, among others, said the SEC.
Besides these, by-elections for two seats in taluka panchayats and 24 seats in municipalities, was also held on Sunday, where there was 47.63 percent voter turnout in municipality by-elections and 68.65 per cent in taluka panchayats by-elections.
Gujarat BJP president CR Paatil led a road show in Navsari, while Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Paresh Dhanani, took part in a motorcycle rally in Amreli. Aam Aadmi Party head and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal sought votes during a road show in Surat on the last day of campaigning on Friday.
For the first time, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) has fielded candidates in minority-dominated seats in Godhra, Modasa and Bharuch municipalities.
According to the Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia, over 44,000 policemen along with 54,000 Home Guards were deployed to ensure incident-free voting on Sunday.
( With inputs from IANS )
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