Campaigning for the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) polls, scheduled to be held on Sunday, ended here this evening.
This is the second election of the GMC after it was set up in March 2010.
These polls have become interesting as the Congress is all charged up after its victory in the recent local bodies polls, even as the ruling BJP is faced with the Patel quota agitation and the prevailing water scarcity situation in the state, ahead of the 2017 state assembly elections.
Congress and BJP members have campaigned hard for the GMC polls.
This particular election comes nearly four months after state-wide local body elections saw Congress making resounding come-back by winning most of the district and taluka panchayats in rural areas, even as the BJP managed to retain six municipal corporations and 40 out of 52 municipalities.
Both the parties had promised in their manifesto to make Gandhinagar a "smart city".
"People have seen the development work done by us. We are confident that on the basis of the development work done by us in GMC, work done by state government and central government we will get majority in the polls," BJP leader I K Jadeja said.
However, Congress hopes that it will continue its good performance in the local bodies polls.
Congress leader Nishit Vyas said people are tired of BJP's "misrule" and the party is confident that it will gain majority in the polls.
Meanwhile, the administration said it is gearing up for the polls. "All the preparations are complete for the elections to be conducted in a peaceful manner," Gandhinagar District Collector and returning officer for polls, Ravi Shankar, said.
There are a total of 202 polling booths and out of it 53 have been identified as sensitive, he said.
Shankar said, he along with the officials of Gujarat State Elections Commission, today in reviewed preparation for the elections.
Polls will be held for GMC on Sunday, while counting will take place on Tuesday.
There are a total of 108 candidates in the fray for the polls of 32 seats.
In 2011, Congress had won the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation election with 18 seats out of 33, with only 15 seats going to BJP. Later, BJP formed majority by bringing some Congress councilors on its side.
