Compulsory voting for local body polls in Gujarat

Gujarat has become the first state in the country where voting will be compulsory for local body elections. 

Five years after it was passed by the Gujarat Assembly, the Gujarat Local Authorities Laws Amendment Bill has been green-lighted by Governor O P Kohli. A brainchild of former chief minister and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it had become a bone of contention between former governor Kamla Beniwal and Modi.

While Modi had called it historic when the Cabinet under him passed it in 2009, Beniwal had returned the Bill.

The Bill ensures 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies and makes it compulsory for voters in the state to vote in municipal, district, taluka and panchayat elections. 

The Bill also allows negative voting, which empowers voters not pick any of the listed contestants. Beniwal had returned the Bill saying that it violated the constitutional rights of people. She had also sought de-linking of 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies. But in 2011, the state Assembly again sent it to the governor without any changes.The Opposition Congress has been up in arms against the decision.