BJP has won several seats in Gujarat unopposed.
Ahmedabad: The campaign for the election for Junagadh Municipal Corporation i.e. JMC, 68 municipalities and three taluka panchayats in Gujarat ended on Friday evening. The State Election Commission (SEC) said in a release that voting will also be held for the by -elections for the seats of various local and urban bodies urban bodies for various reasons. The three taluka panchayats in which elections are to be held are Gandhinagar, Katlal and clothes. This is the first local body election after the Gujarat government announced 27 percent reservation for OBCs in panchayats, municipalities and civil corporations in 2023.
‘Now 5084 candidates in these elections in the fray’
The State Election Commission said in its statement that the polling will be between 7 am and 6 pm on Sunday, while the counting of votes will be held on Tuesday. The release said that there will be no election in 213 seats declared ‘unopposed’ as only one candidate has remained in the fray in each of these seats while the rest have withdrew nominations. In this way, a total of 5,084 candidates are now in the fray in these elections. The BJP had already claimed that it would win unopposed after withdrawing the nomination of candidates of other parties in 213 seats of various local bodies including 8 seats of Junagadh Municipal Body.
‘Name withdrawn after being threatened by BJP’
The BJP also claimed that it would also win 4 municipalities in Bhachau, Zafarabad, Bantwa and Halol as the number of seats declared ‘unopposed’ in its favor is more than the necessary majority in each of these municipal bodies. However, the Congress alleged that its candidates withdrew their names after being threatened by the BJP. The BJP has denied the allegations of the Congress. Let us know that out of a total of 60 seats in 15 wards of BJP -ruled JMC, the ruling party will get 8 seats ‘unopposed’, as Congress candidates withdrew their nominations last week.
‘8 seats in Junagadh won without fighting’
On February 4, the last day of withdrawal of nominations, thePe claimed that it had won these 8 seats in Junagadh without any fight, as there is no other contender left in the field. Election officials also confirmed that in these 8 seats of ward numbers 3 and 14, Congress candidates refused to contest the election, and only BJP candidates are left in the fray. SEC said that now the remaining 52 seats will be voted. In the last election for JMC in 2019, BJP kept power by winning 54 seats, while Congress and NCP won 3-3 seats.
OBC quota limit increased from 10 percent to 27 percent
In August 2023, the state government had increased the OBC quota boundary in municipal corporations, panchayats and municipalities from 10 percent to 27 percent based on the report of the Justice Jhaveri Commission. The existing quota for SC and ST in local bodies remained 14 percent and 7 percent respectively, respectively, so that the total quota remained within the 50 percent limit. After the Supreme Court’s decision that reservation for OBC should be based on their population, Jhaveri Commission was formed in July 2022.
