Mumbai: With assembly elections due in the state next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got a running start in Gujarat, sweeping all 15 municipal corporations that went to the polls Sunday. Counting for rural body polls is still underway.
Going by official figures, the BJP has won more than 50 percent of the total seats across the 15 municipal corporations.
Nearly 9,200 seats across 15 municipal corporations, 84 municipalities, 34 district panchayats, and 260 taluka panchayats in Gujarat went to the polls Sunday.
According to the State Election Commission, voter turnout was 55.1 percent for municipal corporations, 65.5 percent for municipalities, 66.6 percent for district panchayats, and 67.2 percent for taluka panchayats.
Voting was also held this time for nine newly created corporations, namely Navsari, Gandhidham, Morbi, Vapi, Anand, Nadiad, Mehsana, Porbandar and Surendranagar; along with existing Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, and Jamnagar corporations.
In Ahmedabad, the BJP had won a landslide with 160 out of 192 seats till 6pm Tuesday, with the Congress winning 32 seats.
In Rajkot too, BJP recorded a landslide, winning 65 of 72 seats; while the Congress won 7.
“The vibrant saffron hue of Rajkot…Heartfelt thanks to the citizens for granting a grand victory in the Rajkot Municipal Corporation, and warm congratulations to all the workers,” Gujarat BJP wrote on X.
રંગીલા રાજકોટનો કેસરિયો રંગ…
રાજકોટ મહાનગરપાલિકામાં ભવ્ય વિજય અપાવવા બદલ નાગરિકોનો ખૂબ ખૂબ આભાર અને સૌ કાર્યકર્તાઓને હાર્દિક અભિનંદન.#ખીલ્યું_કમળ_જીત્યો_વિકાસ pic.twitter.com/Y3wafQyL6c
— BJP Gujarat (@BJP4Gujarat) April 28, 2026
“The BJP has secured a massive public support in these local body polls. The triple engine sarkar has worked well. Gujarat’s people have been giving support to development politics for the last 30 years. This is an answer to Congress and AAP’s negative politics,” Gujarat BJP spokesperson Dr Anil Patel told ThePrint. Adding, “We believe we will get more public support in coming days. Gujarat people are peace loving, development oriented and hence they have supported us in large numbers and we will work harder in coming days as well.”
The BJP also emerged as a strong force in rural Gujarat, dominating two-thirds of the seats till 6 pm. In district panchayats, the party had won nearly 600 seats out of a little over 1,000 while the Congress secured over 75.
Across 260 taluka panchayats with a total of 5,234 seats, the BJP had won 2,397 seats as of 6 pm. The Congress secured 591 seats, while others claimed 329.
For the Congress, the silver lining was winning a ward in Surat Municipal Corporation, which was swept by AAP last time. Last time Congress had drawn a blank here in 2021. It also won in Dabhoi municipality, a stronghold of BJP.
In Ahmedabad, the Congress won 32 seats, up from 24. In Rajkot, its seats went up to 7 from 4 last time.
Congress spokesperson Parthiv Raj told ThePrint that even though he is not happy with the results, the party’ performance improved compared to 2021.
“We are improving and will work harder to solve people’s issues. Democracy is getting murdered but we are trying to fight and save it. Out of 9,000 odd candidates, I am proud to say that our candidates did not come in pressure of anyone nor did they fear anyone but they put up a good fight,” he said.
For AAP, the performance has been not encouraging. After emerging as a strong contender for the opposition space in 2021, AAP failed to recreate the magic.
The biggest setback came in Surat municipal corporation where in 2021 it had won 27 seats and emerged as the principal opposition party. But this time around, the party managed only 4 seats. In 2021, it had managed to get 14 percent of the total votes polled in the local body polls, a major chunk coming from Congress.
ThePrint reached AAP MLA Chaitar Vasava for comment via calls and text messages but had not received a response by the time of publication.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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