A total of 1,621 candidates are in the fray in the Gujarat Assembly elections after the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations got over on Monday.
Elections to the 182-member Assembly would be held in two phases on December 1 and 5 for 89 and 93 seats respectively.
In the first phase, 89 seats of Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions will go to polls on December 1, while 93 seats of north and central Gujarat regions will go for polling on December 5.
As per the details shared by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, 788 candidates are in the race in the first phase and 833 in the second phase.
BJP contesting in all seats
The ruling BJP is contesting in all 182 seats, while the Congress has fielded candidates in 179 seats and left three seats for its alliance partner NCP. However, the NCP is contesting only in two seats as its candidate from Devgarh Baria opted out of the race, withdrawing his nomination papers on Monday.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had announced candidates for all 182 seats, but its candidate withdrew his nomination from the Surat East seat.
Another party in the race is the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which has fielded candidates in 14 Assembly seats but its candidate withdrew from the Bapunagar seat.
For the polls, more than 4.90 crore people are eligible to cast their votes. As per the details of the Election Commission of India, there are 11.62 lakh new voters, including 4.61 lakh first-time voters, after the final electoral roll was prepared in October this year.
Out of the total 4,90,89,765 eligible voters, 2.53 crore are male, 2.37 crore are female, and 1,417 are of the third gender.
