54.17 pc polling in Junagadh civic body election

The Junagadh Municipal Corporation, which went to the polls today for 59 seats across 20 wards, saw a moderate 54.17 percent voter turnout.
"Polling was held in a peaceful manner at 279 booths. On the final count, 54.17 percent voters turned out. In 2009, the voter turnout was around 56.8 percent," said city election officer and Junagadh Collector Alok Kumar Pandey.
JMC is the only municipal corporation in the state ruled by Congress. The civic body has 60 seats, but polling was held for 59 seats, as a Congress candidate at a seat in ward no 20 was declared 'uncontested' (as there was no other candidate in fray) by the State Election Commission.

As many as 156 candidates were in the fray, including 57 each of BJP and Congress. There are 2,11,298 registered voters in Junagadh.
Results would be declared on Tuesday.
To maintain law and order situation, around 1,300 uniformed men were deployed through the day.

"Our deployment included four companies of SRP, 862 constables, 460 home-guards, seven Deputy Superintendents of Police, 63 sub inspectors and 21 police inspectors. No major untoward incident took place during the polling," said District Superintendent of Police Saurabh Tolambia.
However, Congress candidate in ward No. 14, Rajdeep Kaneria, alleged in a police complaint that he was attacked by four bike-borne men.

Bypolls for eight vacant seats across nine municipalities in the state too were held today.