Gujarat’s ruling BJP has won 47 of the state’s 75 municipal seats, the Congress has won 16 seats. On six seats, no candidate got majority. Four seats were won by Independents and two by others. Elections were held for 75 municipalities, two district panchayats and 17 taluka panchayats on Saturday. In 2013, the BJP had won 59 of the 79 municipalities. The Congress had won 11, but lost five of them later, when its leaders defected to the BJP. The civic elections were watched closely after the BJP posted its weakest performance in years in the December Assembly elections. The party won a fifth straight term in power in Gujarat, but not before a scare as the Congress seemed to catch up several times when votes were being counted, eventually reducing the BJP’s margin of victory considerably. The BJP won 99 of Gujarat’s 182 assembly seats, only seven more than the majority mark of 92, while the Congress won 77, up from 60 in the last elections.
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