Stage set for final phase of voting in high-stakes Gujarat poll battle
AHMEDABAD: Voting for 93 out of 182 assembly seats in Gujarat will be held on December 5, when 833 candidates will be contesting across 14 districts of central Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Gandhinagar, for the second and final phase of the elections. Polling for 89 seats took place on December 1. The results will be declared on December 8.
In 2017, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 48 out of 89 seats in the first phase of polling and bagged 51 in the second phase, taking its total tally to 99 out of 182 seats. The Congress won 38 in the first phase and 39 in the second phase of elections in 2017.
The first phase of voting on December 1 recorded 63.31% turnout. The Election Commission of India on Saturday issued a special appeal to voters ahead of the next phase on Monday, urging them to reverse the “urban apathy”.
A total of 25 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the second phase, including 12.9 million men and 12.2 million women. There are 5.96 million first-time voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years, according to the Election Commission. The poll body has set up 14,975 polling stations for which 113,000 election officers have been deployed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has held more than 35 rallies in the state since the election dates were announced on November 3, took out two back-to-back road shows in Ahmedabad on December 1 and 2, including one 50km roadshow that covered 14 of 16 constituencies in Ahmedabad, and one in Gandhinagar.
Union ministers Amit Shah,
Rajnath Singh, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Smriti Irani and BJP president JP Nadda also campaigned for the ruling party in the second phase. Modi arrived in Ahmedabad on Sunday to exercise his franchise and took blessings from his mother in Gandhinagar. He will cast his vote at a polling
station in the Ranip locality of Sabarmati constituency of Ahmedabad city on Monday, the BJP said in a statement. On Sunday, Union home minister Amit Shah will cast his vote at a municipal sub-zonal office in Naranpura locality of Ahmedabad city.
Prominent candidates in the
second phase include chief minister Bhupendra Patel at Ghatlodia, Patidar leader Hardik Patel at Viramgam, OBC leader Alpesh Thakor at Gandhinagar South, former minister Shankar Chaudhary at atharad and Jignesh Mevani at Vadgam. Patel, Thakor and Chaudhary are contesting as BJP candidates, while Mevani is contesting on a Congress ticket.
The ruling BJP is also facing a challenge from rebel candidates in some places in the second phase. The party’s seven-time MLA from Waghodia, Madhu Shrivastav, is contesting as an independent after being denied a ticket.