Voting for the Gujarat Civic Body Polls started on Sunday, 21 February, at 7 am and is expected to end by 5pm except for those with COVID, who will be given a one-hour window after 5pm to vote, reported The Indian Express.
The counting of votes for the 575 seats in the six municipal corporations – Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar – will take place on Tuesday, 23 February.
There are 2,276 candidates, comprising 577 from the BJP, 566 from the Congress, 470 from AAP, 91 from NCP, 353 from other parties, and 228 independents, are in the fray, added the report. Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM will debut the Gujarat polls with 21 candidates in Ahmedabad.
The Panchayat and municipalities election will take place soon after, on 28 February, vote counting for which will be done on 2 March.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah cast his vote in Naranpura area of Ahmedabad along with his family on Sunday.
Among others who have voted so far are Gujarat Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi, BJP MP Kirit Solanki, Bhavnagar West MLA and former Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani, and party MLA Rakesh Shah.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani who had tested positive for coronavirus after being hospitalised for fainting mid-speech during a rally in Vadodara last week, will be voting in Rajkot, and BJP state President, C R Paatil will cast his vote in Surat.
Polling is underway in the six cities with 1.14 crore voters, comprising 60.60 lakh men and 54.06 lakh women, added the report.
(With inputs from The Indian Express)
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