In the polling held in 8,624 village panchayats across for the election of members as well as sarpanchs on Tuesday on December 27 2016 about 80.12 per cent voter turnout was recorded.

Around 1.20 lakh candidates were in fray for 53,116 wards, whereas 26,800 candidates contested 8,527 seats of sarpanchs.

Gram Panchayat polls are not fought on party symbols as candidates need to fight on their personal capacity and each voter is required to cast two votes, one to elect sarpanch and another for electing panchayat member for his ward. Votes are being counted manually as EVMs were not used in polls.

Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki said at a press conference :

Congress said 6721 seats of total 8624 seats in 33 districts of Gujarat “78 per cent” elected sarpanchs are associated with the party some way or the other.

“Around 70 per cent sarpanchs elected today were directly or indirectly associated with Congress and its ideology. It’s very clear that BJP has lost this election. We are surprised about BJP’s tall claims,” .

He said rural voters are not happy with BJP, mainly because of the Centre’s demonetisation move. “It was a fight between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi and it was Rahulji who came out victorious. Rural voters rejected BJP mainly because the note ban decision, which has crippled rural economy,” he added .