Gujarat polls: Congress makes inroads, dent in BJP’s vote share

Not just the number of seats, even the vote share in the recent Gujarat civic polls says so -- the Congress is well ahead of the BJP in the villages, while making marginal gains in the cities.

Not just the number of seats, even the vote share in the recent Gujarat civic polls says so -- the Congress is well ahead of the BJP in the villages, while making marginal gains in the cities.

BJP workers burn fire crackers as they celebrate their candidates' victory in Municipal elections in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.(PTI)

The data released by the state election commission on Monday, twelve days after the results were announced, showed that Congress has a 3% lead over BJP in the rural areas. In cities, BJP’s vote share has gone down marginally compared to the 2010 elections, though it still came out on top.

In the 31 district panchayats, the Congress’s vote share has gone up to 47.85%, from 44% in 2010. The BJP’s percentage of votes has dipped to 43.97 from 50.26 in the 2010 elections.

There is a similar role reversal in the 230 taluka panchayats, where Congress’s vote share of 46% is higher than BJP’s 42.32%. In 2010, it was 42.42 and 48.51% respectively for the Congress and the BJP.

In the 56 municipalities, the BJP’s share of votes is down to 44.67% from 47.77%. With 39.59% of the votes, the Congress has recorded a 10% jump from last time.

In the cities, where the BJP has maintained a decent 10% lead over the Congress, it barely managed to keep its votebank intact.

The vote share of Congress in six municipal corporations – the face-saver for the BJP this time – has jumped from 33% to 41.12%, while that of the BJP has declined to 50.13% from 51.68%.

In the local body elections , the Congress won 23 district panchayats against BJP’s 6, and 124 taluka panchayats against BJP’s 60. In 2010, the BJP had won 30 district panchayats and 176 taluka panchayats.

Results of the elections to over 300 local bodies were announced on December 2. The state elections commission, which dilly-dallied on releasing the vote share saying it wasn’t its priority, finally went ahead and made the figures available.