NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, DEC 17
Campaigning ended on Friday for polls to 10,879 village panchayats in Gujarat, which are expected to be the last major test for political parties – BJP, AAP and Congress – before Assembly elections in December next year.
The village panchayat polls, which are not fought on party symbols though candidates are affiliated to parties, will be held using 54,000 ballot boxes instead of EVMs on Sunday due to the high number of wards and the results will be announced on Tuesday, officials said.
The campaigning ended on Friday, NK Damor, joint commissioner of the State Election Commission said.
The SEC, in a release, said, of the 10,879 village panchayats, the five-year tenure of 10,117 is ending in December, while polls will be held in 65 panchayats due to splitting or dissolution of existing bodies, and bypolls in 697 panchayats where seats fell vacant due to various reasons.
Nearly 2.06 crore voters will elect 10,284 sarpanchs and 89,702 panchayat members of these 10,879 gram panchayats, though 1,267 gram panchayats have been declared as ‘samras’ or “fully uncontested”, as only one candidate remained on December 7, the last day for withdrawal of nominations.
More than 5,000 election officials, 1.5 lakh polling staff and over 58,000 policemen will be deployed, officials added.
In the 2017 Assembly polls, which the BJP won with a reduced tally, the urban voter had preferred the saffron party, while the rural electorate largely sided with the Congress. Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) have made inroads in urban Gujarat in the recently held civic polls upsetting the main opposition’s wins in many seats. In Gujarat Capital, AAP came second in securing the number of votes but won only one seat.
According to political observers, this poll will be a trailer of 2022 Assembly polls.
