Tie in elections to the Gujarat’s capital, BJP loses majority

Gandhinagar: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress won equal number of seats with the election to the municipal corporation of Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar posting a tie in the results declared on Monday. The polling for the second term of the GMC was held on Sunday.

By-elections to 10 taluka panchayat seats in five districts were also held simultaneously where the BJP has won seven leaving the rest to the Congress. The BJP earlier had only one out of these rural seats in five districts while Congress had six. Meanwhile, the BJP and the Congress have won one seat each in by-polls to two seats in as many district panchayats.

Losing its majority in the 32-member Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, the BJP has won 16 seats, two down from 18, equaling that of the Congress. A total of 78,247 out of 1,50,610 eligible voters had exercised their franchise. The Congress has more reason to cheer than the BJP in the results as the party’s panel of four has won in three out of a total of eight wards while only one of the BJP’s panels could win.

The Congress had secured 18 seats to win the first elections to the GMC five years ago when Narendra Modi was the chief minister but lost power midway through when its three members defected to the BJP, which had 15 seats. GMC then had 33 seats which were reduced to 32 after delimitation. Gandhinagar and Junagadh were the only two corporations out of eight where the Congress had the majority.

Gandhinagar Mayor Mahendrasinh Rana, who had defected to the BJP to topple the Congress rule, has lost the elections by 60 votes to Congress’ Pravin Patel ‘Quality’, who had switched over to the BJP.

With both parties having 16 seats each, it was yet unclear who will get to rule the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation.