Gujarat Election 2022 Phase 1 with 56.88% voting till 5 pm; all major parties claim they would emerge victorious.
The first phase of polling for Gujarat Assembly elections came to a close at 5:30 pm on Thursday with 56.88% of voters sealing the fate of 788 candidates. The state registered a 56.88% voter turnout till 5 pm, while Tapi saw 63.98% voting by 3 pm, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said.
A total of 89 candidates from each of the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress were in the fray along with 88 candidates from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
There was a live webcasting of 13,065 polling stations to ensure transparency. There were 39 political parties in the contest for 89 seats in 19 districts of Kutch and Saurashtra region out of the state’s total 182 seats. Tribal-dominated southern Gujarat saw over 60% polling in Tapi and Narmada districts.
The voter turnout till 1 pm stood at 34.65%. While polling was going on, two groups from different political parties entered a scuffle at Palitana in Bhavnagar.
At Jamjodhpur of Jamnagar district, women voters protested after learning that no separate booth was set up for them at the polling station.
In Junagadh, police attempted to stop a Congress functionary walking toward the polling station carrying a gas cylinder, leading to a ruckus.
Meanwhile, a BJP candidate from Vansda, Navsari claimed to have been attacked by unidentified persons in Jhari village in the morning.
In 2017, the last Gujarat state elections in these 89 constituencies saw the BJP 48 seats while Congress secured 38 seats. The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), then Congress ally, won 2 seats and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) managed to clinch one seat.
The BJP has been in power in Gujarat for the last 27 years and Gujarat could see a change with a three-pronged contest with Congress and AAP.
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