Afternoon Pulse: BJP keeps Gandhinagar with 38 of 44 seats as Congress more than doubles to five

Since this morning, the strong rooms in Sector 15 have opened and Gandhinagar has its answer. The BJP keeps the capital's municipal corporation comfortably. Its margin is a little thinner than five years ago, and the Congress has more than doubled its tiny group on the floor.

Aaj Tak and Rakhewal Daily, both updated around midday, report the final count for the 44 seats as BJP 38, Congress 5 and one independent. AAP won nothing. In 2021 the BJP won 41 seats, the Congress two and AAP one, so the BJP is down three seats, the Congress is up three and AAP has lost its only councillor. An independent now sits in a house that had none. Counting began at 9 am at the Government Commerce College in Sector 15, IANS reported. Pulse had not seen a consolidated State Election Commission notification by the time of publication.

The ward-by-ward picture from ETV Bharat Gujarat's live updates shows where the BJP's panels held and where they broke. The party took all four seats in Wards 1, 3, 4 and 9. The Congress won all four seats in Ward 6, though ETV Bharat said a recount had been demanded there. In Ward 7 (Kolvada and Vavol), the Congress's Nagin Nadiya took one seat and the BJP's Kinjal Thakor, Sonalba Vaghela and Shailesh Patel took the other three, which IANS's round-wise figures also showed. In Ward 2 the BJP won three seats and independent Deepikaba Rajendrasinh Vaghela won the fourth.

One ward closes a loop from this morning. Ward 4 was where the dispute that produced both FIRs against Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani began, and it had the city's highest turnout at 74.78 percent. ETV Bharat reported that the BJP won all four seats there. Supporters of the police action and Mevani's critics will point to that result. Mevani's camp is likely to argue that a ward fight cannot settle a criminal complaint.

On the FIRs themselves, nothing new had come up by early afternoon. An IANS report filed just after midnight described the two cases, one at the Pethapur police station and one at Sector 7. Both accuse Mevani and others of obstructing police on 8 October and of campaigning after the campaign period closed. IANS reported no arrest, summons or bail plea. Mevani repeated that he sees the cases as political, linking them to his allegations of a land scam. IANS carried no response from the BJP.

The smaller contests went both ways. In Chhota Udepur, the BJP's Dr Rajniben Rathwa won the Ward 4 municipal bypoll with 1,108 votes, against 356 for the Congress's Arjunbhai Rathwa and 326 for AAP's Dr Kailas Rathwa, Gujarat Samachar reported. The seat fell vacant after BJP member Manjulaben Koli lost her membership in a dispute over her caste certificate. In Devbhumi Dwarka, AAP's Veerubhai Kandoriya won the Bhadthar district panchayat bypoll by 3,651 votes after seven rounds, Sandesh and Abtak reported. It is AAP's one clear win of the day in the results we could confirm. For Okha and Thara, local outlets reported the BJP winning individual wards, but at the time of writing we could not confirm full tallies from two outlets.

In Ahmedabad, the search for the ten-year-old visually impaired girl who fell into an open drain near Pirana on Saturday is in its fourth day. Sandesh reported on Tuesday that she still had not been found and that residents were angry about the uncovered drain. We found no statement from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and no announcement of an inquiry.

Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi's citizenship ceremony at SAL Institute in Sola was still listed for today. Gujarat First's morning preview put the number at 158 refugees: 126 under the Citizenship Amendment Act and 32 through the Collector's office. Mayor Hitesh Barot and Minister of State Darshanaben Vaghela were also expected to attend. We had not seen a report of the ceremony itself by publication time.