75 municipalities in Gujarat to go to polls on February 17

Gujarat state election commission on Tuesday announced the polls for 75 Nagarpalikas (municipalities) in state that will be held on February 17. The commission, however, could not make announcement for the polls on two district Panchayats Banaskantha and Kheda as the election petition challenging delimitation in local government bodies was filed in Gujarat high court.

Making the announcement, the commissioner of Gujarat State Election Commission(SEC) Dr Varesh Sinha said, "The notification of the elections will be issued o January 29 and the polls will be held on February 17. The counting of votes will be held on February 19. Besides 75 municipalities, by polls on 7 seats of six different municipalities and one seat of Rajkot Municipal Corporation also will be held on the same day."

"The polling will be done through EVMs and the timing of voting shall remain 8:00am to 5:00pm. The voters will have the option of NOTA in these polls. Total 19.76 lakh voters will caste their votes on 2,763 polling stations," Sinha added. The current term of these poll bound municipalities ends on February 23 and it is mandatory to form the new body before the date, as per the rule set by the election commission of India, added Sinha.

The election commission was to announce polls for 17 Taluka and 2 district Panchayats too on the same day, but that could not happen as the election petition against the delimitation was filed in Gujarat high court. The petitioner has challenged the delimitation of constituencies and rotation of reserved category seats set by SEC.