Team News Riveting
Ahmedabad, November 22
After the last date of withdrawal of nominations for the ensuing Gujarat assembly elections ended today, a total of 1,621 candidates are left in the fray to try their electorate fate in the next month’s polls.
Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will take place on December 8.
The Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat said 833 candidates are in the fray for the 93 seats that would go to the polls in the second phase. The last day of withdrawal for the second phase was Monday.
As many as 788 candidates are in the fray for 89 seats that will go to the polls in the first phase of elections, a release from the election office said.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded candidates on all 182 seats, while Congress has fielded candidates on 179 seats while it allocated three seats to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as part of a pre-poll alliance.
The NCP candidate withdrawing his nomination for Devgadh Baria seat leaving the party to contest in two seats only. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also fielded candidates on all 182 seats, but its candidates withdrew his nomination from the Surat East seat, so it will end up contesting 181 seats.
All Indian Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielded candidates in 14 Assembly seats but its candidates withdrew from Bapunagar seat.
Constituencies in the districts of Saurashtra-Kutch region and south Gujarat will go to the polls in the first phase. These districts are Valsad, Tapi, Dang, Navsari, Surat, Bharuch, Narmada, Botad, Bhavnagar, Amreli, Gir Somnath, Junagadh, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Morbi, Surendranagar and Kutch.
In the second phase, seats in the districts of central and north Gujarat, that is, Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Aravalli, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Anand, Kheda, Mahisagar, Panchmahal, Dahod, Vadodara and Chhota Udepur will go to the polls.
