Voting ended for the first phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats across 19 districts of Saurashtra-Kutch and southern regions at 5 pm on Thursday. The second phase of elections will be held on December 5 and results will be announced on December 8.
A low voter turnout of 59.24 per cent was recorded till 5 pm.
The ruling BJP is hopeful of improving its tally of 99 seats in the 2017 elections and returning to power in a state they have ruled now for 27 years.
In the first phase, polling was held in 89 seats spread across 19 districts in the Saurashtra-Kutch region and the southern parts. There were 788 candidates in the fray.
The BJP and Congress contested all 89 seats. New entrant AAP was in the fray in 88 seats along with 339 independents.
Only 70 women candidates contested - nine from the BJP, six from the Congress and five from the AAP.
Voting was held from 8 am across 14,382 polling stations. Three thousand three hundred and eleven of these were in urban areas, while the rest were in rural Gujarat.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed rallies at Kalol in Panchmahal and Chhota Udepur, where the elections will be held in the second phase on December 5.
Prominent candidates
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday took a swipe at the Congress over its past 'Garibi Hatao' campaign, claiming that poverty actually increased under the grand old party's rule as it only raised slogans and misguided people instead of doing any concrete work for them. READ REPORT HERE
VIEW PHOTOS HERE | 101-year-old woman, Jadejas among enthusiastic voters in Gujarat elections first phase
A low voter turnout of 59.24 per cent was recorded until 5 PM.
101-year-old Amina Gharia, a resident of Patel Paliya of Boudhan village of Mandvi taluka, cast her vote for Mandvi assembly seat at Boudhan village. She said that since the time of Independence, she has cast her vote many times. "I have seen the work of many governments very closely in my life. I don't know how many days are left in my life, but I will keep voting as long as I am alive," she added.
These included 5.74 lakh voters in the age group of 18-19 years, and 4,945 above the age of 99 years, the office of the state CEO said.
Out of the 89 seats that went to polls in the first phase, the BJP won 48 in the 2017 election, the Congress had won 40, while one seat was bagged by an independent candidate. ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
Heta, who came to vote with her family at the polling station in Bardoli Municipality area of South Gujarat said that she feels happy and proud to be a part of the election process. til now I have read about elections in books only but today I feel and see the thrill of election voting, she promised to vote regularly as a vigilant voter in every subsequent election.
Constituency-wise polling percentage:
Overall Voting Percentage for first phase across 19 districts is 59.24% till 5 PM:
Percentage at 5 PM:
While the famous cricketer campaigned for his wife Rivaba Jadeja, his elder sister canvassed for Bipendrasinh Jadeja, highlighting the "sibling rivalry" that has added another layer of interest in the poll after the BJP dropped its sitting MLA Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, locally better known as Hakubha.
The EC has shared that 4.92% of the voters turned up in the first hour of polling in Gujarat. Among the early birds, a centenarian woman and ex-CM Vinay Rupani.
The Vyara Assembly seat, which has gone to the polls on Thursday, is witnessing a unique battle. Both the Congress and BJP have fielded Christian candidates - tribal Christians. This is a first.
Of the 89 seats where polls will be held on December 1, as many as 35 constituencies are spread across the southern districts of Bharuch, Narmada, Tapi, Dang, Surat, Valsad and Navsari. The polling is also due in 48 seats of Saurashtra and six seats of Kutch district.
In 2017, the BJP had managed to win 25 of the 35 seats in South Gujarat while the Congress and Bharatiya Tribal Party won eight and two seats, respectively.
Of the 14 seats reserved for the STs, the BJP won only five. The tribal-dominated areas are still considered BJP's Achilles' heel.
BJP's Vansda candidate attacked today
It is in one of the tribal seats, Vansda, that the BJP candidate Piyush Patel was attacked at around 2:30am Thursday.
A police official said that "When BJP candidate Piyush Patel was going from Pratapnagar to Vandervela village in his vehicle at 2.30 am, some unknown persons of Zari village attacked him and injured him and also damaged four to five vehicles. The police has registered an FIR in this regard. Further investigation is underway."
Patel alleged that it was Congress candidate Anant Patel's supporters who threw stones and attempted to vandalise his car. He sustained injuries on his head.
Many political observers have been saying that the BJP has made caste-based politics and political parties irrelevant in elections in India. But caste and community remain at the heart of the 20222 Assembly polls in Gujarat, as we had reported earlier.
This emphasis on caste equations might have a lot to do with the Congress' Madhav Singh Solanki, the late leader who made the best use of caste equations in Gujarat.
In 1980, Solanki came up with the KHAM (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim) theory based on the fact that this bloc constitutes nearly three-fourths of Gujarat's population. Wooing the KHAMs helped the Congress win big. They clinched 142 seats in 1980 and 149 seats in 1985, a record that the BJP has been trying to break for the last 27 years.
This time the BJP has tried to conjure up an almost similar formula and do a Solanki. The only difference is that the ruling party has left out Muslims and included the Patidars -- call it the KHAP (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Patidar) theory, if you will. To help them further, they have sprinkled a liberal helping of Hindutva on top of this.
Interestingly, the Congress, the one-time proponents of 'KHAM' and to great success, have also updated their version and gone the KHAP way, leaving out the Muslims.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which always positioned itself as a party of change, has not been immune from these developments and has also handed out tickets on the basis of caste equations.
Our reporter says that BJP candidate Piyush Patel was attacked by unidentified men in Gujarat's Vansda around 2:30am. A probe is underway, he adds.
The Morbi Bridge collapse on October 30 has not helped BJP's Saurashtra Mission. But the party is keen on waving wave the saffron flag from across the 48 seats of Saurashtra that is going to the polls at any cost.
Our correspondent Dilip Singh Kshatriya reports that Saurashtra has always been considered pivotal in Gujarat politics.
All the major political parties have campaigned vigorously here for the past two months.
Due to the pro-BJP tilt of Patidar voters in Saurashtra, the BJP's seats have steadily increased over the last two and a half decades. Still, after the Patidar reservation movement, the BJP suffered a setback in the 2017 assembly elections, finishing behind the Congress in the region. That is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given importance to Saurashtra in his Gujarat campaign this time around.
The Congress too has undertaken a tacit campaign across Saurashtra assembly segments during the last three months. The Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal too has held the most rallys in Saurashtra.
The results from Saurashtra between 2002 and 2012 showed BJP gaining strength, with Patidars showing a pro-BJP stance. But in 2017, BJP suffered a massive loss in Saurashtra due to the Patidar reservation movement as well as the farmers' discontent in rural Saurashtra, where the Congress gained ground. In three districts of Saurashtra, namely Amreli, Morbi, and Girsomanath, BJP lost all the seats, while in Junagadh, and Porbandar districts, BJP got one seat each.
According to the 2017 results, out of a total of 48 seats in Saurashtra, 28 seats were won by Congress while BJP has to be content with 19 seats.
With the AAP entering the fray and expected to cut into Congress votes this time around, the big question is about how big a reversal of fortunes the BJP can engineer.