Schedule for village panchayat polls announced in Gujarat

State Election Commission of Gujarat today announced that elections for around 1,420 village panchayats will be held on February 4 and counting of votes will take place on February 6.
The elections to the village panchayats comes a couple of months after the state assembly elections, in which opposition Congress had an edge over ruling BJP in rural areas of Gujarat.
The commission in a press release said that notification for the election will be issued on January 5, while last date of filing of nomination forms is January 20.
Voting will take place on February 4 while counting of votes will be taken up on February 6, the release said.

The elections will be held in regular course to most of this village panchayats as their term is ending, it added.
The village panchayats elections are not fought on party symbols. However, both the BJP and the Congress have started preparations for the elections.

BJP held meeting of core committee last week to prepare for the elections, while the main opposition party Congress today held meeting of its leaders to start preparations for polls.
After the Gujarat Assembly elections held in December last year, BJP retained power by winning 99 seats while Congress bagged 77 seats.
Congress won more seats than BJP in rural areas of Gujarat in the Assembly polls.