Around 99 candidates were in fray for 25 seats; a complaint of booth-capturing was also lodged late in the evening.
Close to 50% voter turnout was recorded in the Bar Council of Gujarat elections held in the city on Friday. Of the 14,000 registered voters in the city, 6,266 voters cast their franchise to elect 25 office-bearers. Meanwhile, in a late development, a complaint of booth-capturing at Gandhinagar was made by advocate Minesh Vaghela and other 11 before the election officers that a group of lawyers had committed booth-capturing and an observer was locked inside the room.
For the first time in the history of BCG, 99 candidates were in fray for the 25 seats. Hence many in the association saw it as closely-contested polls. Around 19 of the total candidates were from the Ahmedabad metropolitan court, the highest from any court across the state. The counting will start on May 14 while the results are expected to be declared by May 18.
"This time around, we had deputed a person from the high court at all polling booths across the state to ensure that elections were conducted in a fair manner," said joint returning officer RC Jani and HM Parikh.
A candidate in the fray, BM Manjukiya said that the voter turnout was more than what was expected. "There also appears to be anti-incumbency factor at work," said the lawyer.
Vijay Sharma, another lawyer who came to cast his vote rued the fact that the facilities were not up to date. "There is much excitement and lawyers have turned out in large numbers to vote despite the summer heat," said Sharma. Incidentally, most of the present office-bearers of BCG have decided to contest the polls.
A day before the polls, one panel of lawyers had issued an advertisement in the local daily highlighting the 'misdeeds' of another set of lawyers contesting the elections. The advertisement had become the talking point for several of the voters at the Gujarat club, where the elections were held in Ahmedabad.
Chandrashekhar Gupta, whose father is contesting the polls, said, “We want good lawyers who will fight for our rights.”
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