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The Agricultural Market Committee (APMC) board elections in Potad on Monday saw heavy polling with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) entering the fray. The AAP entry included that balloting for the 14 directors of the APMC Board became a three-way contest.
The votes will be counted on Tuesday and the results are expected in the late afternoon. The new board of directors will take over the management of one of the largest wholesale markets in Saurashtra from a government appointed official.
Butad Co-operatives Responsible Registrar Rina Patil, who is also the election officer, said 98.45 percent of the polling was registered for the ten seats of the Farmers’ constituency and 97.16 percent for the four seats of the Traders’ constituency. It said that of the 776 voters registered in the peasant constituency, 764 exercised the right to vote. Likewise, out of 317 electors, 308 cast their votes in the Merchants constituency.
There was a heavy rush in the morning and polling progress remained slow as voters from the Farmers’ constituency could give preferential votes to all 32 candidates in a battle. Likewise, a voter from the Traders constituency could give preferential votes to all seven candidates in a race.
By noon, about 80 percent of the polling had been registered,” the election official said, adding, “Polling remained completely peaceful and no untoward incident was reported.”
Botad APMC is one of the largest wholesale markets for cotton in Gujarat. It recorded tax collection of approximately Rs 10 crore in the 2022-23 financial year. The term of the Board of Directors expired on 10 July 2022. The state government has extended the terms of all directors for one year as a temporary arrangement. But the extension was cut short when the state government appointed the registrar of co-operatives as official and then announced that an election would be held.
The Botad APMC election became a three-way contest where the AAP also threw its hat into the ring. While the BJP has fielded its own candidates, few BJP rebels and co-leaders in Congress are their main opponents.
By the way, two seats have already been determined for the undisputed buying and selling associations. Four people submitted their candidatures for two seats in the buying and selling federations. However, later two of them withdrew their nominations. Therefore, the remaining winners, Vashram Taviya and Dharmendra Vadodariya, were declared undisputed.
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