BJP Retains Power in Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation Elections
THE RULING BJP retained power in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC), winning 38 of the total 44 seats as the poll results were announced by the State Election Commission (SEC) on Tuesday. The Congress won five seats while one was secured by a woman Independent candidate in the urban local body governing the state capital. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had one member in the previous GMC body, drew a blank as all 32 of its candidates lost in the elections. After the results, Union Minister for Home and Cooperation Amit Shah on Tuesday targeted the Opposition Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi in an apparent reference to the ongoing protests in Delhi. In a video posted on his ‘X’ account, Shah referred to recent elections in Tripura, Gujarat, Assam and West Bengal and thanked the people of those states who gave their stamp of approval for BJP and National Democratic Alliance “amidst a storm of false propaganda” and boosted the “morale of all nationalistic forces.” Shah said in the video, “The GMC, which falls under my parliamentary constituency, saw the BJP win 38 of 44 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party contested all 32 seats and forfeited its security deposit on every single one of them. This resounding victory for the BJP in Gujarat indicates the mood of Gujarat’s voters and also makes it clear that Gujarat’s voters still stand like a rock with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji. In the GMC, the BJP has increased its vote share by 10% compared to the previous election.” Shah added, “I want to convey this point to Rahul Gandhi that even after 41 years, the Congress has not been able to win a single election in Gujarat to this day. The last election they won was 41 years ago in 1985; since then, they have faced continuous defeats in Gujarat. I also want to ask Rahul ji: is this the result of an SIR? You dismiss the popularity of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi ji by calling it the result of an SIR; you ought to introspect. In such a large state where your rule used to be constant, you have not been able to win a single election for 41 years. This is a matter requiring serious introspection for them.” Voting in the GMC polls was held on October 11 and 59.25 per cent (%) voter turnout was recorded. A total of 130 candidates were in the fray and the Congress as well as the BJP had fielded candidates on all 44 seats. AAP had fielded its candidates on 41 seats. However, four of the AAP candidates’ nominations were cancelled by the SEC whereas five of them withdrew their forms. Although the BJP has retained power, its numbers have decreased by three seats from the previous elections. The Congress, meanwhile, has improved its tally in the GMC by three seats. The Congress swept all four seats in Ward No. 6 and one of its candidates won one seat in Ward No. 7. Ward No. 6 covers the area where Mahatma Mandir Convention and Exhibition Centre of the Gujarat government, which hosts the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, is situated. In the previous GMC elections in 2021, the BJP scored a landslide victory, winning 41 of the 44 seats. The Congress could win only two seats and AAP opened its account on one seat. However, subsequently both Congress candidates defected to the BJP, leaving only one AAP member – Tushar Parikh – to represent the Opposition in the GMC. AAP had repeated Parikh in the latest elections from Ward No. 6. One woman, an Independent candidate – Deepika Vaghela – won from Ward No. 2, securing 4,909 votes. As per the roster, the post of GMC Mayor is reserved for members of Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities this time. The election results have marked a remarkable shift in the vote share of the three main political parties, if compared with data of the 2021 elections. The BJP’s vote share in current election results is 56.46%. This has increased significantly from 2021 when it recorded 46.39% votes, but won more seats. The Congress party’s vote share, 36.93%, has increased in comparison with its vote share, 27.96%, in 2021. The AAP’s vote share, however, has witnessed a drastic fall from 21.72% in 2021 to 4.37% in 2026. The elections saw former CM Shankersinh Vaghela campaigning for Congress in Ward No. 4. However, the party lost all four seats to the BJP there. A senior BJP leader said the results have set the stage for the party’s preparedness for the state Assembly elections due next year. “These election results show that people are with BJP and its policies. It is also due to the personal focus given by Amitbhai Shah (Union Minister for Home and Cooperation) of Gandhinagar city as around 90% of the GMC falls within his Lok Sabha constituency,” the leader said. The leader added, “As such, there was no opposition. We have lost these six seats owing to personal infighting arising from distribution of party tickets. Some party workers who were disgruntled with distribution of party tickets sabotaged the party candidates on those six seats. If better care had been taken in distribution of party tickets, we could have easily won all 44 seats.” Gandhinagar was conferred municipal corporation status in 2010. The first elections were held in 2011. The Congress party won the polls, bagging 18 of the 33 seats. The BJP won 15 seats. However, Congress’s mayor Mahendrasinh Rana defected to the BJP in October 2012 along with two other members. The Congress lost its majority and the BJP formed the board in the urban local body and Rana was retained as mayor by the BJP. The second general elections of the GMC were held in April 2016. Out of the total 32 seats in those elections, both Congress and BJP won 16 seats each. However, Congress’s corporator Pravin Patel defected to the BJP, giving the saffron party a crucial edge and majority towards forming the board. Pravin Patel was declared mayor by the BJP. The third general elections of the GMC were held in April 2021. The BJP swept the polls, winning 41 of the total 44 seats in the corporation. Along with the GMC polls, the SEC also organised general elections of Thara nagarpalika in Banaskantha district and Okha nagarpalika in Devbhumi Dwarka district, apart from by-elections of some seats of some nagarpalikas, district panchayat and taluka panchayat. The BJP won the general elections of both Thara and Okha nagarpalikas. In Okha, the BJP won 33 of the total 36 seats; Congress won three seats. Whereas in Thara, out of the total 24 seats, BJP won 19 and remaining five won by Congress. Following the results, the Gujarat BJP celebrated the victories at the party headquarters in Gandhinagar in the presence of its state president Jagdish Vishwakarma, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi. Responding to the results, Vishwakarma thanked the voters of Gujarat and added that it reflects people’s unbreakable confidence in BJP’s people-centric politics under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also commended the hard work put in by the party workers who took the government’s public centric work to people. Meanwhile, reacting to the results, Congress President of Gandhinagar City Shakti Kumar Patel said, “We regret that we have not been able to come to power, but we are also happy that people have given us five seats (from the previous two seats). We have lost 3-4 seats by a thin margin. We will work on our shortcomings in future and continue to fight for people’s issues.” “Through the post of Leader of Opposition, we will work for the people,” he added. On AAP’s dismal performance in the GMC elections, the party’s chief spokesperson Karan Barot termed the results as “unexpected”, especially the significant decline in vote share. Barot said, “We accept the people’s mandate. We will assess the results and work to improve our performance in the future.”
