High-decibel campaign for Guj polls’ Phase 2 concludes
AHMEDABAD: A high-decibel campaign for the second phase of Gujarat assembly polls ended on Saturday evening with leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) reaching out to voters through rallies, roadshows and public meetings.
Voting for 93 of the 182 seats will be held on December 5. A total of 833 candidates are in the fray for these seats across 14 districts of central Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Gandhinagar. Polling for 80 seats took place on December 1, in the first phase of voting that recorded 63.31% turnout. The results are set to be declared on December 8.
Polling will be held at 26,409 booths and nearly 36,000 Electronic Voting Machines will be used. The Election Commission will deploy 29,000 presiding
officers and over 84,000 polling officers in 14 districts, said an official release.
Prominent candidates in the second phase include chief minister Bhupendra Patel from Ghatlodia, Patidar leader Hardik Patel from Viramgam and OBC leader Alpesh Thakor from Gandhinagar South. Both Hardik Patel and Thakor are contesting on BJP ticket. Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani who contested as an independent in
2017 and won from Vadgam seat is contesting from here on Congress ticket this time.
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 roadshows in Ahmedabad on December 1 and 2.Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Smriti Irani and BJP president J P Nadda also campaigned for the ruling party in the second phase. On Saturday, several prominent leaders, including BJP’S Yogi Adityanath, and AAP’S Bhagwant Mann held rallies and roadshows across the 14 districts.
Addressing a rally in Khambhat, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said: “Let’s make Gujarat free of Congress and all problems will be solved.”
Talking to reporters at Thara in Kankrej, Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor said the party is hopeful of winning with 125 seats. Meanwhile, AAP leader Bhagwant Mann took out roadshows at Garbada, Dahod, Jhalod and Fatepura. During one of the roadshows, Mann said, “This time we want AAP to break all the records in Gujarat and form a government with full majority.”