AHMEDABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 38 of the 44 seats in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) elections and retained power in the Thara and Okha municipalities in Gujarat, according to results declared by the State Election Commission on Tuesday.The Congress finished second in Gandhinagar with five seats, while an independent candidate won one seat. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had won one seat in the previous election, failed to open its account this time.The BJP had won 41 of the 44 seats in the previous GMC elections, held in October 2021. The Congress had secured two seats and the AAP one.In Thara municipality, in Banaskantha district, the BJP won 19 of the 24 seats, while the Congress secured the remaining five.In Okha municipality, in Devbhumi Dwarka district, the BJP won 29 of the 32 seats for which polling was held, while the Congress secured three.Four seats in Okha had been declared uncontested after only BJP candidates remained in the fray. With these seats, the party secured 33 of the municipality’s 36 seats, retaining control of the civic body.The results mean the BJP retained all three urban local bodies that went to polls on Sunday.Counting began at 9 am on Tuesday.Elections to the GMC were held across 11 wards, with 130 candidates contesting the 44 seats. The civic body has around 2.59 lakh voters.In Thara, polling was held for 24 seats across six wards, while in Okha, voting took place for 32 seats across nine wards.Gandhinagar recorded a voter turnout of 59.25%, while the turnout was 81.18% in Thara and 63.27% in Okha, according to the State Election Commission.The elections were conducted using electronic voting machines (EVMs).
