Gujarat civic polls on October 10
The date for elections in six municipal corporations in the state is out. The Gujarat Civic polls will be held during navratri 2010 on October 10. The State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday announced that elections to the municipal corporations of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar will be held on October 10.
The counting of votes will take place on October 12.
SEC secretary PS Shah said, “The model code of conduct has come into effect in the wards of these cities from September 9. All the candidates will have to declare the details of their educational qualifications, criminal history, assets and debts in affidavits. The voting time will be from 8 am to 5pm.”
The notification for the election will be released on September 20. The last day for filing of nominations will be September 25 and the scrutiny of nominations will be done on September 27. The last date for withdrawing nominations will be September 28. With the announcement of the date, the Congress and the BJP were driven into poll mode, though they had started preparing their ground work months back.
Recently, Ahmedabad city has witnessed many government functions where either new facilities have been dedicated to citizens or stones have been laid for new projects.
According to sources in the BJP state unit, the civic elections will be fought on three issues — development, ‘saffron terrorism’, and ‘misuse of CBI’.
“Most cities have witnessed remarkable development in terms of basic civic amenities and other infrastructure. For Ahmedabad, there is BRTS, Sabarmati Riverfront Development, Kankaria beautification and Civil Hospital upgradation, renovation of Bhadra fort, changing look of Kharikat canal, etc. The party will be considering some young, well-educated candidates and also some experienced party-workers,” said an officer-bearer of the BJP.
On its part, the Congress has called a meeting of ward presidents and ward office-bearers to plan a strategy for the elections. Party sources said that they will take up issues like Amit Shah's alleged role in extortion and encounter case and civic problems of overflowing drainage and damaged roads.
As compared to 2005, for 2010 the number of voters has increased by nearly 17 lakh in these six municipal corporations.
Source : DNA
