Voting in the Gujarat assembly elections will be conducted in two phases on December 1 and December 5. Eighty-nine seats will go to polls in phase one. The voting for the remaining 93 seats will take place in the second phase. A party needs to win at least 92 seats to form a government in the state. The results will be announced on December 8.
A total of 788 candidates will be contesting the elections in the first phase of which 339 are independents and the rest are from 39 parties. These also include 70 women candidates.
Initially, 1,362 candidates filed their nominations for the 89 seats but the number came down to 999 and then 788 after scrutiny. The last date to file the nomination was November 17.
All eyes will be on Ghatlodia constituency. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel will be contesting against Congress's Amee Yajnik here. Another seat to look forward to is Jamnagar North. India cricketer Ravindra Jadeja's wife Rivaba Jadeja is representing the BJP from this seat. Veteran leader Bipendrasinh Jadeja has been fielded by the Congress. The AAP's candidate is Karsan Karmur.
The other key constituencies that will go to polls in the first phase include Viramgam, Morbi, Surat, Porbandar, Khambhalia, and Dwarka. Other constituencies are Jalalpore, Navsari, Vansda (ST), Porbandar, Dhoraji, Jasdan, Rajkot, Bardoli and Limbayat, among others.
The campaigning for phase one of the Gujarat election ended on November 29. The BJP, which has been ruling the state for 27 years, and the main opposition, Congress, will contest all 89 seats. The AAP has fielded candidates on 88 seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party will fight on 57 seats and All Indian Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on six seats.
According to Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer P Bharathi, out of the 4,91,35,400 registered voters in the state, 2,39,76,670 are eligible to cast their votes in the first phase. In the first phase, 5.74 lakh voters are from the age group of 18-19 years.
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