Gandhinagar: The second phase of elections in Gujarat on Thursday will see polling for 93 Assembly constituencies across 14 districts in northern and central regions of the state.
A host of VVIPs, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah will cast their vote. A total of 851 candidates are in the fray for the second phase, where 2.22 crore people are eligible to vote.
Elections will be held in Banaskantha, Patan, Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Aravalli, Mahisagar, Panchmahal, Dahod, Kheda, Anand, Vadodara and Chhota Udepur districts from 8 am to 5 pm.
A total of 25,575 polling booths have been set up in 14,523 places.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a tweet, urged voters to turn out in record numbers and cast their votes. "Today is Phase 2 of the Gujarat elections. I request all those voting today to vote in record numbers and enrich this festival of democracy," he tweeted.
Today is Phase 2 of the Gujarat elections. I request all those voting today to vote in record numbers and enrich this festival of democracy.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 14, 2017
Visuals from Mehsana:
Voting for second phase of #GujaratElection2017 to begin shortly. Visuals from polling booth no.121 in Mehsana's Kadi pic.twitter.com/BwGurtqF4E
— ANI (@ANI) December 14, 2017
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Gujarat's office has completed all the necessary procedures and claimed to be fully prepared for the day.
Apart from the 112 general observers deployed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the Gujarat elections, 70 counting observers have been appointed by the ECI for counting of votes registered in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) which will be carried out on December 18 in 37 selected regions of the state.
To take care of the law and order situation, the ECI has deployed hundreds of companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), 12 companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) and 19 more companies of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) for the election.
During elections in the second phase, 1,700 of the critical polling booths will be covered under the webcasting with constant monitoring of these booths, IANS reported.
PM Modi will be casting his vote at Nishan Vidyalaya in Ranip area of Ahmedabad, while Shah will cast his vote from his former state Assembly constituency, Naranpura. Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley will cast his vote from Vejalpur region of Ahmedabad.
Senior BJP leader LK Advani too will be in Ahmedabad to cast his vote from Khanpur area. The sitting MLA from Abdasa and Congress candidate from Mandvi, Shaktisinh Gohil will be casting his vote in Gandhinagar.
State Congress President Bharatsinh Solanki will exercise his voting right in Borsad town of Kheda district. Another Congress candidate Siddharth Patel will be casting his vote from Dabhoi.
Prominent candidates in the fray for Thursday's battle include state Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who is contesting from Mehsana against Jivabhai Patel of Congress.
Alpesh Thakor, who joined the Congress, is seeking election from Radhanpur constituency. Lavingji Thakor of the BJP is contesting against him, as per PTI.
Vadgam SC seat is another key constituency from where independent candidate Jignesh Mevani is fighting the election on Congress support against BJP's Vijay Chakravarti.
In Maninagar, the constituency once represented by PM Modi, Congress has given a ticket to foreign-educated young face Sweta Bhrambhatt against BJP's sitting MLA Suresh Patel. PM Modi had vacated the constituency after becoming the PM in 2014.
The Gujarat contest is being seen as a prestige battle for PM Modi in his home state, where a reinvigorated Congress has sewed up a broad social coalition with prominent Patidar, OBC and Dalit leaders in its bid to unseat the BJP in power for over two decades.
The first phase of voting for the 182-member Assembly was held on December 9 and covered 89 seats. The counting of votes will be on December 18.
In the 2012 Gujarat Assembly polls, the BJP had won 115 seats, while the Congress had bagged 61.
(With Agency inputs)
