EVEN AS the local body general elections for 9,952 seats across municipal corporations, municipalities and panchayats in Gujarat are days away, 722 seats have been declared ‘uncontested’ amid 1,663 withdrawals, as per official data.
This comes even as the Congress party and several of its candidates were alleging that the latter were being threatened, and lured with money, tickets and positions by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
These numbers may go up further as returning officers (ROs) were still making entries till the time of the filing of this report around 8 pm Thursday. The 722 uncontested seats include three seats where by-elections are due.d
The State Election Commission (SEC) data revealed that the most candidates declared uncontested winners are from municipalities or nagar palikas. Out of the total 7,819 nominations filed till April 11 for 2,624 seats in 84 nagar palikas going to election on April 26, 1,525 forms were cancelled. Out of the 6,294 valid forms, 468 were withdrawn, and 383 seats were declared uncontested.
The data further revealed that the highest number of withdrawn forms were from seats in taluka panchayats.
For the 5,234 seats in 260 taluka panchayats, 20,638 nominations were received, out of which 5,700 were canceled by the SEC. From among the 14,938 valid forms, 806 were withdrawn and 250 were declared uncontested, leaving 13,882 aspirants in the fray.
In the 15 municipal corporations where elections are due for 1,004 seats, 43 seats were declared uncontested. The municipal corporations saw the withdrawals of 133 forms from a total nomination of 3,321 valid forms.
Claims of coercion, allurement and threats
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On Thursday, when the nominations were being scrutinised, several Congress candidates in Ahmedabad alleged that they were being contacted by police, BJP leaders, social leaders from their community and even their own relatives, who asked them to withdraw their nominations.
To mark their protest, the Congress is planning a statewide protest, titled ‘Lokshahi Bachao Andolan’, soon, party sources said.
It was previously reported that the Congress had already lost six of its candidates for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation elections: five of them withdrew while one went ‘missing’ on the day of the filing of nominations.
“I was asked to state an amount to withdraw my form. We were even offered that our house would be plastered and other facilities provided. Is this what we call “vikas ki rajniti (development politics)”? I will never betray the Congress. My father-in-law is a Congressman, and my son too will be one,” Jyotsnaben Chavda, 38, who is contesting on a Congress ticket from the Nava Vadaj ward, told The Indian Express at the party’s Ahmedabad office, where she had gone to on Thursday to share her experience with other candidates.
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Some of the candidates were even taken to ‘unknown’ places by the party. “We are under so much pressure that we had to shift all four candidates to different offices… the candidates were put under pressure by senior BJP leaders,” Anish Patel, the Congress office-bearer from the Nikol ward, told this newspaper.
Ahmedabad City Congress Committee president Sonal Patel said the party’s candidates were so scared that they had put in a request not to make their names public till the filing of nominations. “Under fear, they requested us not to declare their candidature. So, later we informed them individually over the phone. The BJP has used everything—from police, money and social pressure to even blackmailing some of our candidates—to force them to withdraw,” she added.
Payal Limbachiya, 29, Congress candidate from Viratnagar ward, said: “I started getting phone calls from influential persons known to me, including my business partners, asking me to withdraw my nomination. I was offered a BJP ticket in the next term.”
BJP’s Ahmedabad city president Prerak Shah could not be reached out to for a comment
BJP’s promises for Ahmedabad in manifesto
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From extending the existing 11.5 km Sabarmati Riverfront to GIFT City in Gandhinagar, slum-free Ahmedabad, reserving 33 per cent of municipal recruitment for women, geo-tagging for all municipal projects to ensure transparency and real-time monitoring, construction of 17 new bridges, AI-driven traffic management system, green buses for public transportation, increasing green cover of the city, 100 per cent energy production through solar power that will save Rs 3000 crore annually, free health check-ups and home-visit diagnostics for senior citizens above 70 years of age, a mini sports complex in every zone of the city BJP has promised these to city residents.
However, a majority of these projects have already been announced in the AMC’s budget for the year 2026-27.
