Preliminary electoral rolls published for ward 11 by-poll

Vadodara: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) set the ball rolling for the by-elections to the ward 11 of the civic body on Friday. The civic body published the preliminary electoral rolls. The election become necessary due to the death of the corporator representing the ward.
The electoral rolls were brought out after directives by the state election commission (SEC) last month. It is now up to the SEC to bring out a notification for the by election. One of the four seats in the ward 11 had fallen vacant after former deputy mayor Mamta Kale died on January 11 after a prolonged illness.

As per the rules, the elections for the ward have to be held by July 11. Sources said that the publication of the electoral roll indicated that a notification was in the pipeline. The seat is meant for a woman candidate from the general category.

The election had come into focus due to chances that the winner on the seat may have chances of becoming the mayor as the mayor’s post too is reserved for a woman corporator from the general category. But this may not be possible any more as the term of present mayor expires on June 13, before which a new mayor will have to be elected.

The BJP had won on all the four seats in ward 11 with a clear majority and expects the by elections to be a cakewalk too. The Congress at the other end believes that it can make some inroads riding on the anti-incumbency against BJP on both local and national levels.

The result of the polls will, however, have no effect on the VMC board as the BJP has a thumping majority there. The BJP has 57 corporators against 14 of the Congress and four from the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) even as one seat is vacant due to Kale’s death.