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Gujarat civic polls: Early trends in favour of BJP, but Cong fights hard in two seats

by IBNS 02 Dec 2015, 08:15 am

Ahmedabad, Dec 2 (IBNS) Putting up a tough fight in two of six municipal corporations of Gujarat, the Congress was going neck and neck with the ruling BJP as trends of the counting votes for civic elections were available on Wednesday.

According to early trends,  the Congress and the BJP were neck and neck in Surat and Bhavnagar, while the latter was ahead in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot and Jamnagar. All six corporations were won by the BJP last time.  

Voting for the municipal bodies in these six cities was held on November 26, and for 31 district panchayats, 230 taluka panchayats and 56 other municipalities on November 29.

These are the first major elections in Gujarat since Anandiben took over as chief minister, handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to replace him as he moved to Delhi after the national election last May.

The results come amid  amid a massive agitation for reservation  by the Patel community, to which the chief minister belongs.

The Patels or Paatidars, a wealthy and influential community for long considered a BJP support base, are angry with the Anandiben government for rejecting their demand for reservation in government jobs and colleges.