The BJP on Tuesday won the Gujarat civic elections yet again, sweeping 15 city municipal corporations, while the Congress suffered humiliation and the AAP put up brave resistance in hundreds of panchayat seats as the results demonstrated the ruling party’s strategy of pushing urbanisation as a political engine in the state.

The final tally: The BJP won all 15 municipal corporations, 78 out of 84 municipalities (the Congress won 6), 33 out of 34 district panchayats (the AAP bagged 1), and 253 of 260 taluka (tehsil) panchayats (the AAP got 7). Of 393 local self government bodies, which went to the polls on Sunday, the BJP won 379 while the Congress got 6 and the AAP 8.

As many as 9,200 seats went to polls in 15 municipal corporations, 34 district panchayats, 260 taluka (tehsil) panchayats and 84 municipalities. BJP candidates were declared elected uncontested in 722 other seats amid allegations of horse-trading and threats to Opposition candidates.

According to data from the state election commission, the overall seats break-up at 7pm was: Total 9,992 seats, results declared in 9,855, the BJP bagged 7,400, followed by the Congress at 1,716 and the AAP and others 739.

Despite faltering in the 2021 local body and 2022 Assembly elections, the AAP caused a major upset for the Congress and the BJP in the key tribal belts of Bharuch and Narmada districts. The party bagged the Narmada district panchayat as well as the three taluka panchayats falling under it — Dediapada, Sagbara and Chikhda.

The AAP also snatched the Bagasara, Visavadar and Bhesan talukas from the BJP in the Saurashtra region. Significantly, the AAP picked up the Garudeshwar taluka panchayat in Narmada district, where the Statue of Unity is located, as well as the Valia and Netrang taluka panchayats in the adjoining Bharuch district, the home district of late Congress leader Ahmed Patel.

However, the AAP, which had emerged as the only Opposition party in the Surat Municipal Corporation by winning 27 seats in the 2021 elections and pushing out the Congress, came crashing down to 4 this time while the Congress opened its account after a decade with a single seat.

In the first election after the Gujarat special intensive revision, under which as many as 73.73 lakh voters were removed, Sunday’s polling witnessed 55.1 per cent turnout in the municipal corporations, 65.53 per cent in the municipalities (nagar panchayats), 66.64 per cent in the district panchayats and 67.26 per cent in the talukas. The electorate is 4.18-strong.

The BJP’s vast, well-oiled network notwithstanding, Tuesday’s expected outcome was the culmination of more than a decade-old strategy to see urbanisation as an electoral engine.

It is not without reason that the BJP romped home in all the newly created 9 municipal corporations that went to the polls on Sunday, with new bodies like Vapi registering a
turnout of 73 per cent against the state average of a little over 55 per cent.

The results too reflect this mood. The BJP captured all the 52 seats each in the new Porbandar and Morbi corporations, 51 out of 52 each in Nadiad and Surendranagar, 50 out of 52 in Navsari, 47 out of 52 in Mehsana, 41 out of 52 in Gandhidham, 43 out of 52 in Karamsad-Anand and 37 out of 52 in Vapi.

According to conservative estimates, more than 46 per cent of Gujarat live in towns, cities and urban agglomerations, while the state government expects this population to go up to 75 per cent in the next two decades.

Between former chief minister Narendra Modi and the incumbent Bhupendra Patel, 8 new districts were created, taking the number to 34, while in recent months, ahead of the elections, the state government added 9 municipal corporations in a single stroke, creating a total of 17. These were created by merging several nagarpalikas, while the total number of nagarpalikas rose to 149 by merging several gram panchayats within the ambit of these local bodies.

Successive elections have demonstrated the BJP dominating the traditional urban regions as well as peri-urban areas, as against the rural areas. With increasing urbanisation, however, the BJP swept the 2022 Assembly polls, winning 156 out of 182 seats.