Gandhinagar, Feb 16 (IANS): The ruling BJP on Tuesday claimed to have won 219 out of the total seats of municipalities, taluka and district panchayats, unopposed in Gujarat.

The BJP on the last date of withdrawal of nominations on Tuesday said that it has already won 24 District Panchayat seats, 110 Taluka (Tehsil) Panchayat seats and 85 municipality seats unopposed. The elections are to be held for over 8,000 seats of municipal corporations, municipalities, district and Taluka Panchayats later this month.

The elections for the municipal corporations will be held on February 21 and the polls for the other local bodies will be on February 28.

The saffron party claims to have even formed the local bodies for two municipalities. The BJP says its candidates have won 26 seats out of the total 36 seats of the Kadi municipality in Mehsana district and 21 out of the total 36 seats in the Una municipality in the Gir-Somnath district.

While the electoral battle will take place between the BJP, Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) and other smaller parties, the main fight will be between the BJP and the Congress.