Gujarat: Campaigning for second phase concludes, voting on Monday

Campaigning for the second and final phase of Gujarat Assembly Elections ended this evening. Voting will be held on Monday. Senior leaders from all political parties made last-ditch efforts to woo the voters.

833 candidates are in the fray, including 69 women and 285 independents, for 93 seats across 14 districts which are spread over North and Central Gujarat. Prominent districts like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mehsana Gandhinagar and Patan will be going to polls. The political fate of many prominent leader including, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Seven state Cabinet Ministers and other BJP leaders like Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakur will be decided in this phase. Congress leaders Sukhram Rathava, Jignesh Mavani, Aam Aadmi Party leaders Bharat Singh Vakhala and Bhema Bhai Choudhury are also trying their luck in this phase.

More than 2.51 crore voters are eligible to decide the political fate of the leaders on Monday which include around 6 lakh enthusiastic first time voters. Nearly 5,400 voters are aged 99 years or above and 660 NRI voters are also expected to cast their votes. As many as 26,409 polling booths have been set up for this phase of polling out of which 93 are model polling stations and 14 are youth manned polling stations. Highest number of 29 candidates are contesting from Bapunagar constituency while minimum three candidates are in fray at Idar assembly seat. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is the most prominent candidate of this phase who is contesting from Ghatlodia seat which also has the highest number of voters in this phase