The verdict from Gujarat’s civic body elections is emphatic to the point of being unsettling. Across 15 of the state’s 17 municipal corporations where elections were held, as well as 84 municipalities, 34 district panchayats and 260 taluka panchayats, the BJP has delivered a performance that can only be described as a sweep of rare magnitude.

It has won all 15 municipal corporations, including total victories in Morbi and Porbandar, where not a single seat has gone to the Opposition. From Ahmedabad to Surat, from Vadodara to Rajkot, the margins underline not just victory but dominance. In Surat, the party captured 115 of 120 seats; in Ahmedabad, 160 of 192.

Such numbers are not merely electoral success; they signal a near-total political........

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