Voting begins for first phase of Gujarat elections; 89 seats up for grabs, 788 candidates in fray

Polling began at 8 am on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 out of the total 182 seats across 19 districts of SaurashtraKutch region and southern parts of the state to decide the fate of 788 candidatesThe voting is being held across 14382 polling stations of which 3311 are in the urban and 11071 in rural areas the office of the state Chief Electoral Officer CEO saidLive webcasting is being done from 13065 polling stations to keep a close eye on the process it saidThe Bharatiya Janata Party BJP which has ruled Gujarat for 27 years is trying to retain power in the state for the seventh term in a rowIf it succeeds it will equal the record of the Left Front government which won the West Bengal elections for seven consecutive terms till 2011This time the BJP faces competition not just from its traditional rival Congress but also the new poll entrant Aam Aadmi Party AAP which has tried to position itself as the main challenger of the ruling partyThe BJP and the Congress are contesting in all 89 seatsAlso Read Gujarat elections Phase 1 A look at key players constituenciesThe Arvind Kejriwalled AAP is contesting in 88 seats Its candidate from Surat East constituency had withdrawn his candidature leaving the party with one less seat to contest in the first phaseApart from the BJP Congress and AAP 36 other political outfits including the Bahujan Samaj Party BSP Samajwadi Party SP Communist Party of IndiaMarxist CPIM and Bharatiya Tribal Party BTP have also fielded candidates in various seats up for grabs the first phaseThe BSP has fielded 57 candidates BTP 14 and CPIM four candidatesAs many as 339 independents are also in the fray in the first phaseIn the 2017 elections the BJP won 48 out of these 89 seats the Congress won 40 while one seat was bagged by an independent candidateOf the total 788 candidates in fray 70 are women including nine fielded by the BJP six by the Congress and five by the AAPOut of the total 49135400 registered voters in Gujarat 23976670 are eligible to cast their votes in the first phase There are 574 lakh voters in the age group of 1819 years and 4945 above the age of 99 years who are eligible to cast their votes the state CEOs office saidThe election body has set up 89 model polling stations and as many ecofriendly polling stations There are 89 stations run by differentlyabled and 611 by womenA total of 34324 ballot units an equal number of control units and 38749 Voter verifiable paper audit trail VVPAT machines are being used for the election in the first phase the release saidIt also said that 220288 trained officers and employees have been deployed for the smooth conduct of the election processBesides 27978 presiding officers and 78985 polling officers are also on duty it saidThe AAP has anchored its campaign around a host of guarantees such as free electricity up to 300 units a month unemployment allowance and government jobsThe Congress has made a similar pitch while promising a cooking gas cylinder for Rs 400 free electricity and English medium schools among othersThe BJP seems firm on the ground with its development and Hindutva agenda the promise of 20 lakh jobs setting up of an antiradicalisation cell and implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in the statePrime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned extensively for the BJP in the runup to the electionThe first phase of election will decide the fate of AAPs chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi who is contesting from Khambhalia seat in Devbhumi Dwarka district AAP state unit president Gopal Italia is contesting from Katargam in SuratRivaba Jadeja the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja is another prominent contender from Jamnagar NorthBJP MLAs Harsh Sanghavi and Purnesh Modi both contesting from different seats in Surat as well as fivetime legislator Parshottam Solanki BhavnagarRural are also contesting in the first phaseSitting Congress MLAs like Lalit Kagathara Lalit Vasoya both from seats in Rajkot and Mohammad Javed Pirzada are also in the fray in the first phase from seats in Saurashtra regionSeventime MLA and veteran tribal leader Chhotu Vasava is contesting from Jhagadia in BharuchWith 54 seats the SaurashtraKutch region is crucial for the Congress as it seeks to improve its performanceIn the region the Congress won 30 seats in 2017 compared to 16 in the 2012 election The BJP on the other hand was reduced to 23 seats in 2017 as against 35 won by it in the previous electionIn south Gujarat the Congress in 2017 improved its tally to 10 compared to six in the previous polls while the BJPs tally dropped to 25 in the last election from 28 earlierSouth Gujarat also comprises Surat city with 12 seats which have remained the BJPs bastion since a long timeVoting for the second phase in 93 seats will be held on December 5 The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its 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