Ahmedabad: The State Election Commission (SEC) of Gujarat has issued an order regarding the rotation of reserved seats in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), which is likely to go to polls next year.

According to a press release issued by the Secretary of the SEC, Gandhinagar, the AMC comprises 48 wards and 192 seats. The new seat allocation reflects the revised reservation percentage for backward classes in local self-government bodies, which has been increased to 27 percent.

Out of the total 192 seats, 96 have been reserved for women, 20 for Scheduled Castes (SC), 2 for Scheduled Tribes (ST), and 52 for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), leaving 59 seats open for general category candidates.

As per the SEC, the total population of Ahmedabad city, based on the 2011 Census, stands at 56,64,062. With 48 wards, each ward has an average population of 1,18,001, with a permissible variation of ±10 percent — a maximum of 1,28,801 and a minimum of 1,06,201.

The SEC has also announced the reserved seat allocations for other major civic bodies, including the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC), Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC), and Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC). In SMC, out of 120 seats, 60 are reserved for women, 3 for SCs, 4 for STs, and 32 for OBCs. In Rajkot, 36 of the 72 seats are reserved for women and 19 for OBCs, while in Vadodara, 38 of the 76 seats are reserved for women and 21 for OBCs.

Notably, reserved seats in municipal corporations are rotated once every five years, prior to each general election. Since the last elections for these civic bodies were held in 2021, the next elections will be conducted with the newly rotated reserved seats. The SEC is expected to soon announce reservation details for the remaining local bodies. DeshGujarat