New Delhi: After a lot of speculation, the Election Commission on Wednesday announced dates for polling in Gujarat. The battle for the state has been hotting up with BJP and Congress leveling barrage of accusations against each other. The tenure of the current BJP govenment ends on January 22nd, 2018.
Here are the five big takeaways from EC's announcement on Wednesday.
* Elections in the state will be held in two phases on December 8 and 14. Counting will take place on December 18 - the same day as counting in Himachal Pradesh.
Schedule of first phase elections (89 constituencies and 19 districts)
Issue of gazzete: November 14
Last day of filing nomincation: November 21
Scrutiny of application: November 22
First phase polling/ election date: December 9
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Schedule of second phase elections (92 constituencies and 14 districts)
Last day of filing nomincation: November 27
Second phase polling/ election date: December 14
* The elections would be held for 182 seats, out of which 13 seats are reserved for SC and 27 for ST.
* 50,128 polling booths will be set up and VVPAT machines will be used in the polling.
* Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti said no candidate can spend more than Rs 28 lakhs on campaigning and that the Model Code of Conduct is now in effect:
* Differently-abled voters will be given preference at polling stations.
