Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 28: Lotus has bloomed almost at every level of electoral bodies in Gujarat with the BJP on Tuesday sweeping the elections to the local self-government bodies all over the state capturing all the 15 municipal corporations and establishing comfortable leads in the municipalities as well as the district and taluka panchayats in the state.
In a powerful display of political control of an entire state, the BJP completely decimated the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which had sprang a surprise in the 2021 local body elections by capturing 27 seats in the Surat Municipal Corporation and made its presence felt in some other civic bodies. In several municipal corporations, the saffron party this time did not concede even a single seat to the opposition winning all the seats in the board.
In one of the largest electoral exercise in the state ahead of the 2027 state Assembly elections, polling was held on Sunday for elections to 15 municipal corporations, 84 municipalities, 34 district panchayats and 260 taluka panchayats together accounting for over 9,200 seats with more than 4.18 crores eligible voters.
The saffron party not only perpetuated its control over the six existing municipal corporations of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, and Jamnagar in the state, but also swept all the nine newly upgraded municipal corporations of Anand Karamsad, Gandhidham, Mehsana, Morbi, Nadiad, Navsari, Porbandar Chhaya, Surendranagar Wadhwan, and Vapi. The 9 new municipal corporations were approved by the Gujarat Cabinet on January 1, 2025, to address rapid urbanisation and improve infrastructure and governance.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the BJP workers and thanked the people of the state for giving overwhelming support to the BJP in civic elections. “The relationship between Gujarat and the Bharatiya Janata Party has now become even deeper and unbreakable! I express my heartfelt gratitude to the people of Gujarat for the resounding public support and mandate received by the BJP in the Municipal Corporation, municipality, taluka panchayat, and district panchayat elections held across the state.
“By recognising the people-centric and development-oriented work of the state government, the people of Gujarat have once again expressed their trust in the politics of good governance. These results clearly demonstrate that the public has given their heartfelt blessings to the tireless efforts made by the BJP over the years. I assure the people of Gujarat that in the times to come, we will work with even greater commitment and dedication, and remain continuously striving to take the state to new heights of development,” he said.
The results from the 2026 local body polls confirm that the “saffron wave” has not only held steady but intensified in key urban centres, leaving the Opposition with negligible presence in the state’s major city councils.
In Ahmedabad, the BJP clinched a landslide with 146 out of 192 seats, while the Congress was limited to a mere 18 as the counting is still going on. The most striking reversal of fortune occurred in Surat; the AAP which had sent shockwaves through the state in the previous election by winning 27 seats, saw its influence decimated, managing to secure only four seats this time and the BJP surging to 115 seats. Similar patterns also emerged in Rajkot and Vadodara, where the BJP captured 65 seats in each corporation, leaving the Congress struggling to reach double digits.
The BJP’s success also extended into the taluka and district panchayats, though the Congress and AAP managed to find small pockets of support in rural areas.
The Congress has not managed to win a single seat so far in Mehsana, Morbi, and Nadiad, underlining the BJP’s strong showing in these newly formed civic bodies. According to the Election Commission, voter turnout stood at 55.1 per cent across the 15 municipal corporations. Polling percentages for other local bodies were higher, with municipalities recording 65.53 per cent turnout, district panchayats 66.64 per cent, and taluka panchayats 67.26 per cent.
The elections were held under revised norms for Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservations, which required extensive delimitation and ward restructuring in several districts. The BJP, Congress and AAP were the main contenders in the polls, while AIMIM also fielded candidates in several areas.