About 65 pc voter turnout in Guj municipal polls

Gandhinagar, Mar 12 (UNI) About 65 per cent of the 3.09 lakh voters today turned out to cast their votes in the polling held for elections to 28 muncipalities spread across Gujarat.

Byelections to five muncipal seats and a tehsil panchayat were also held.

The elections were held for 531 seats across 18 districts of the state, with 1,286 candidates being in the fray. The poll results will be declared on March 14. Candidates for 57 seats have already been declared uncontested.

While the BJP is contesting the municipality elections on the party symbol, the Congress is fighting the polls through its local committees.

State Election Commission (SEC) secretary V H Shah said 397 polling booths had been set up in 196 wards, in which there were three seats.

The 28 municipalities include Talsadi and Mandvi (Surat), Bhabhar (Banaskantha), Vadali and Bayad (Sabarkantha), Kathlal, Kanjari and Thasra (Kheda), Valbhipur (Bhavnagar), Damnagar and Babra (Amreli), Amod (Bharuch) Barvada and Bareja (Ahmedabad district), Pethapur and Motera (Gandhinagar), Maliya-Miyana (Rajkot), Sojitra (Anand), Savli (Vadodara) and Shehra (Panchmahals).

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