The Gujarat State Election Commission has issued guidelines for campaigning for local municipal corporation, municipality, district and taluka panchayat elections to be held in two phases in February.
According to the guidelines for local self-governance and panchayati raj institutions’ elections, only five persons should conduct door-to-door campaigning while social distancing norms must be followed during rallies and meetings. The parties must adhere to COVID-19 measures like masks and arrange sanitisers for crowds.
The Commission has made it mandatory for the parties to seek prior permission of nodal officers for organising a rally or meeting.
In the first phase on February 21, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar corporations will go for voting. In the next phase, 31 district panchayats, 230 taluka panchayats and 81 municipalities are scheduled for voting on February 28.
The State Commission has also announced model code of conduct.
The BJP and the Congress are set to announce candidates next week. There are 48 wards in Ahmedabad city and each ward has four councillors. The ruling BJP has dominated all municipal corporations since 2005.
The Opposition Congress has moved the High Court challenging the SEC’s poll schedule which entails counting of votes for municipal polls on February 23 before the voting for district and municipality polls.
In its petition, the Congress party has contended that counting should be held together for both municipal corporation and panchayat elections, since results of cities may have spillover effect on rural areas.
In 2015 also, the Supreme Court had directed the SEC to revise its schedule and hold the counting together after the voting in the two phases.
