Congress proposes, SEC disposes

GANDHINAGAR: In a major setback to the Congress, the state election commission (SEC) has rejected the party's demand to hold back the announcement of election results for six municipal corporations - Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar - before panchayat polls take place on October 21. Congress had represented to the SEC that counting for elections to six municipal corporation corporations should take place alongside district and taluka panchayat elections, after October 21.
The six municipal corporations go to polls on October 10, and the SEC has clarified that their results will be announced on October 12 "as scheduled". SEC chairman KC Kapoor told TOI on Tuesday, "We have conveyed our decision to Congress president Siddharth Patel. We do not need to give anything in writing, as we have decided not to cancel our earlier order to announce municipal corporation poll results on October 12. Congress had raised the issue earlier too, but we rejected it."
Patel had represented to the SEC that announcement of municipal corporation poll results be held back till the end of panchayat polls. "We had apprehended, in our representation to the SEC, that an early announcement of the results would influence panchayat elections," Patel said. He added, "Even during our discussion with SEC, we had found that SEC was not keen to club the announcement of elections to municipal corporations with those of panchayats."
Notably, Congress is on a weak wicket in the six municipal corporations, where urban middle classes strongly favour the BJP. However, it hopes to fare considerably well in 24 district panchayats, 208 taluka panchayats and 53 municipalities, where rural and semi-urban voters are galore. SEC officials are of the view that municipal corporation and panchayat elections are "not linked" and are guided by "separate acts of Gujarat state assembly". A senior SEC official said, "Going by Congress logic, even Kathlal assembly bypoll results should have been withheld."