Team News Riveting
Ahmedabad, December 1
Gujarat today went to the first phase of polling with the 56.88 per cent electorate exercising their franchise even as the process passed off peacefully.
Polling in 89 constituencies in Gujarat was held on Thursday. The Election Commission of India had set up 14,382 polling stations across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the state. In all, electorate fate of 788 candidates were locked in the electronic voting machines.
Out of the 89 seats 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. Campaigning for the first phase of the elections in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state ended at 5 pm on Tuesday.
Apart from the BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), 36 other political outfits, including the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) have fielded candidates in the first phase.
The new poll entrant AAP, which has made aggressive campaign, is contesting on 88 seats. Its candidate from Surat East constituency had withdrawn his candidature, leaving the party with one less seat to contest in the first phase.
Among other parties, the BSP has fielded 57 candidates, BTP 14 and CPI-M four candidates. As many as 339 independents are also in the fray in the first phase of polls. Out of the total 788 candidates, 70 are women including nine fielded by the BJP, six by the Congress and five by the AAP.
