BJP, Cong split district, taluka panchayats in Gujarat

The see-saw battle between ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Opposition Congress, that began with 2017 Assembly polls in Gujarat, appears to have continued even in the fight for two district and 17 taluka panchayats.

Both, BJP and Congress, shared the two district panchayats apiece, while Congress just edged out BJP in taluka panchayat polls by winning eight, compared to seven by BJP. Two of the 17 taluka panchayats ended in a tie.

Held across three of the 33 districts of the state on February 21, the results announced on Friday show that the Congress was able to wrest Banaskantha district panchayat in North Gujarat from BJP, while it failed to protect its base in Kheda, losing the district panchayat to BJP.

Interestingly, Banaskantha district is hometown of senior BJP leader and cooperative strongman Shankar Chaudhary, who lost in Assembly polls held in December last. The district was witness to severe floods last monsoon. Congress won 35 of the 68 seats here, with BJP getting 23.

In Kheda, the home district of Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki, Congress lost to BJP. Of the 44 seats here, BJP bagged 28, losing 16 to Congress.

On reverse gear

While the Congress appears to have made a dent in BJP bastions after a long time, surprisingly it appears to be doing bad in traditional strongholds of its leaders. On Wednesday, results to Amreli municipality polls indicated that despite having won all the six seats in Assembly in the district and being hometown of Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Paresh Dhanani, Congress lost three of the four municipalities to BJP.

Same was the case with Porbandar in Saurashtra region, where Congress lost all three municipalities, two to BJP and one to NCP, in this stronghold of another Congress stalwart Arjun Modhvadia. Congress had been able to win in Saurashtra region by bagging 30 of the 54 seats during last Assembly polls after a gap of two decades.