Six municipal corporations of Gujarat, namely Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamangar and Bhavnagar, will go to polls on October 10. Announcing this today, P S Shah, Secretary of State Election Commission of Gujarat said the counting for the same will be held on October 12.
All the six municipal corporations are ruled by BJP at present. The elections will be a litmus test for BJP and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party will face people for the first time after the arrest of former minister of state for home Amit Shah by CBI in the Soharabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. The Congress is considering the elections as a major opportunity after revelations that Shah was involved in eliminating Soharabuddin Sheikh.
“The model code of conduct will come in force from today,” Shah said. Number of wards in the Ahmedabad and Surat municipal corporations has increased due to inclusion of new areas in municipal limits. SEC estimates that it will have to make arrangements for over 10,408 polling booths. The SEC had earlier announced to include e-voting but later due to poor response of voters to register for the same, it has decided to postpone it.
“We have decided to make robust security arrangements so that people can come out and vote in free and fair manner,” Shah said. Notification for the polls will be declared on September 20, last date of filing of forms will be September 25, last date of withdrawal of forms will be September 28.
