Voting for six municipal elections in Gujarat began with Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, BJP president Amit Shah and the party patriarch L.K Advani exercising their franchise in Ahmedabad.
Six municipal polls are in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar. A total of 9.5 million voters will decide the future of 1,856 candidates who are in the fray from 143 wards each having four candidates.
Presently, BJP is in power in all the six civic bodies that are going for the polls.
For the first time, 50 per cent candidates are women. This is as per the women reservation in local self government institutes like civic bodies and panchayats.
Second phase of the local polls is scheduled on November 29th when 31 district panchayats, 56 municipalities and 230 taluka or block panchayats will go for voting.
The local elections are seen as precursor to the assembly polls due in December 2017.
The polls will also test the popularity to the Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, who succeeded Narendra Modi as Chief Minister in May 2014 following the parliamentary polls.
