Congress grabs Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation

In a setback to chief minister Narendra Modi, the Congress gave itself a major boost by wining the first-ever elections to Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation on Thursday.

The victory for the Congress came on the eve of the 180th birth anniversary of BJP-controlled Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

The ruling BJP in the state looked all set to capture the civic body in the state capital, but a dramatic turn of events saw the opposition party winning the polls.

In the end, the Congress won 18 seats, while the saffron party won the remaining 15 seats in the 33-seat newly formed civic body.  With this win, the Congress gets to rule two corporations — Gandhinagr and Junagadh.  The other six — Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar — are with the BJP.

The counting of votes began at 9:00 am at Government Secondary School in Sector 16 of Gandhinagar amid tight security to decide the fate of the 116 candidates who had contested in the elections to 33 seats of 11 wards.

The BJP established an early lead by surging ahead in most of the seats. Within some time, the BJP had won four seats, with the Congress bagging a single seat. The BJP continued to lead, but the Congress stayed in the contest. The BJP tally rose to 15 — just two seats away from the majority — while the Congress was stuck in single digits.

However, in a dramatic turn of events, the Congress came back strongly to take its tally to 15. The poll outcome could have gone either side as both parties were tied with 15 seats each, and only the results of ward no. 4 remaining.

Much to the disbelief of the BJP, and to the elation of the Congress, the Grand Old Party won all three seats of ward no 4 to win the GMC elections. The BJP workers were left dejected by the shocking turnaround and the loss, while Congress workers organised a march to celebrate the victory. According to State Election Commission, the Congress won all three seats in ward nos 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8.

It also two seats in ward no 7 and one seat in ward no 9. The BJP panels swept ward nos 1, 5, 10 and 11. The party also won one seat in ward no 7 and two seats in ward no 9. The Nationalist Congress Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, MahaGujarat Janata Party and the independents failed to win any seat.  

Gandhinagar Congress president Vikramsinh Khachr lost in the polls, while BJP rebel Pravin Patel, who contested under the Congress banner after being denied a ticket by BJP, won. Ashwin Vyas, a reporter with a Saurashtra daily, also won.

Elated by the result, former deputy CM and Congress leader Narhari Amin said that people had voted against the BJP and Narendra Modi.

GPCC president Arjun Modhwadia said: "The BJP had put cabinet ministers, builders and businessmen in booths to monitor and manage voting. But they were scared to begin with. This is Congress's first political victory against the BJP but third victory on principles and issues like jantri revision."

Gujarat BJP spokesperson IK Jadeja said that BJP would play the role of a constructive opposition in Gandhinagar and contribute to the capital's development. Elections to Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation were held on April 19.

Gandhinagar was a notified area administered by the state government before it announced the formation of the municipal corporation on March 17, 2010. On September 17, 2009, Gujarat High Court had ordered formation of Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation.

The AMC, which is credited to be the first civic body of the country, turns 180 on April 22. It was set up on this day in 1831.