PM Modi, Amit Shah will vote tomorrow in Ahmedabad for Gujarat polls

Ahmedabad:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will cast his vote in Ahmedabad tomorrow when the elections for the second and final phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections are held.

Prime Minister Modi, who is visiting his native state, will exercise his franchise at Nishan School, Ranip in Ahmedabad on Monday morning.

Earlier on Sunday, the prime minister met his mother Heeraben Modi at her residence in Gandhinagar on Sunday. A photo showed Prime Minister Modi touching mother Heeraben’s feet. PM also had his evening tea sitting next to his mother.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will cast his vote at the municipal sub-zonal office, near Kameshvar Temple, Ankur in Naranpura in Ahmedabad. Shah is expected to arrive at the polling station around 10:30am on Monday.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel will also cast his vote at Booth-95, Shilaj Primary School in Ahmedabad on Monday.

Other prominent names to vote in Gujarat in the final phase include the governor of Uttar Pradesh, Anandiben Patel, Isudan Gadhvi, Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor and cricketers Irfan Pathan, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya.

The royal family of Vadodara, congress leader and member of parliament Shaktisinh Gohil and former prime minister Shankersinh Vaghela will also vote on Monday.

Narendra Modi was the longest-serving Prime Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014.

In the 2017 Gujarat polls, the number of seats held by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was 99 out of a total of 182 seats. The party has been in power for 27 years and Narendra Modi is the state’s longest-serving prime minister.

This time, led by Prime Minister Modi, Amit Shah and CR Paatil, the party is aiming for a peak number of more than 140 seats.

The state has long been a BJP stronghold and the party has set its sights on returning to power for a seventh term.

After the high-tension campaign, the countdown has begun for the end of the high-stakes political struggle in Gujarat, with the final phase of the polls ahead of the ongoing parliamentary elections due to be held on Monday.

In the second and final phase, polls will be conducted for 93 Assembly constituencies in 14 districts in northern and central Gujarat. As many as 833 candidates from 61 parties are in contention in the second phase of the Gujarat elections, the fate of which will be decided by more than 2.51 crore voters.

The Election Commission has set up 26,409 voting booths and will use nearly 36,000 electronic voting machines (EVMs). About 29,000 presidents and more than 84,000 polling stations have been deployed in 14 districts to facilitate the election.

According to Gujarat’s Chief Electoral Officer P Bharathi, out of a total of 26,409 polling stations, 93 are model voting booths, 93 are eco-friendly voting booths, another 93 are operated by Divyang and 14 are operated by youths. In the second phase, webcasting will take place in 13,319 voting booths.

“A total of 2,51,58,730 voters will vote, of which 1,29,26,501 are men, 1,22,31,335 are women and 894 are of the third gender,” Bharathi said.

The 93 second phase polling stations are spread across the districts of Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Patan, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Aravali, Mahisagar, Panchmahal, Dahod, Vadodara, Anand, Kheda and Chhota Udaipur.

One of the key constituencies in the final phase are Ghatlodia, which will decide the fate of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel; Viramgam where Patidar leader Hardik Patel will compete as a BJP candidate, and Gandhinagar South where the Saffron Party has fielded Alpesh Thakor.

The Leader of the Opposition, Congress’s Sukhram Rathava, will be fighting from Chhota Udaipur, while Lakhabhai Bharwad, Jignesh Mevani and Amee Yajnik are some other prominent Congress names with seats in Viramgam, Vadgam and Ghatlodia.

From the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharat Vakhala from Devgadhbaria, Bheema Chaudhary from Deodar, Dolat Patel from Gandhinagar South, Kunwarji Thakor from Viramgam and Vijay Patel from Ghatlodia will test their electoral fortunes in the second and final phase on Monday.

The vehement campaign for the second phase of the Gujarat elections came to an end on Saturday night, as large party shots attempted to win over voters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his last election rally in his native state, in Ahmedabad, on Friday, followed by roadshows for consecutive days on December 1 and 2.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also concluded his campaign for the final phase on Friday with three public rallies in Mehsana, two public rallies in Ahmedabad and a roadshow in Vadodara.

On the last day of the second phase campaign, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath addressed polls in Dholka, Mahudha and Khambhat to garner support for BJP candidates while Union minister Parshottam Rupala campaigned in Banaskantha , Chhota Udaipur and Anand. His colleague in the union cabinet, Smriti Irani, also held two roadshows in the state.

From the Congress, Shaktisinh Gohil held rallies in Deodar, Tharad and Modasa on the last day, while cricketer turned politician and ex-Congress MP Mohd. Azharuddin held three roadshows in Vejalpur, Jamalpur Khadia and Dariyapur in Ahmedabad.

Among AAP leaders campaigning on the last day was Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who held four roadshows in Garbada, Dahod, Zalod and Fatehpura. The party’s CM face for Gujarat, Isudan Gadhvi, also held roadshows in Sidhpur, Kankrej, Dhanera and Vav on the last day.

During the first phase of the polls on December 1, Gujarat saw an overall voter turnout of 63.14 percent. Voting began at 8am in 89 constituencies across 19 districts of Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat regions.

The first phase of voting for 89 seats in Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat ended on December 1, with an overall voter turnout of 63.31 percent.

The results of the Gujarat Assembly polls will be announced on December 8.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)