Modest turnout marked Gujarat’s second phase of voting in which 59.11 % average turnout was registered at 93 Assembly seats across the regions of north and central Gujarat on Monday.
An average 59.11% turnout was registered till 5 p.m. but this is likely to change after the final voting figures are updated from all polling booths across 14 districts of the State. In the first phase, an average 63.3% turnout was registered from 89 seats in Saurashtra and south Gujarat districts. The provisional figure released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the second phase at 5 p.m. is expected to rise further as collecting data from some polling stations takes time and the number does not include postal ballots.
In the 2017 Assembly polls, the turnout was 68.41 %.
After low polling in the first phase, the ECI had appealed to voters to come out and vote in large numbers to compensate for the low turnout in the previous phase but apparently the appeal did not have any impact as urban pockets saw substantially lower turnout in the final phase as well.
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and others cast their ballot in Ahmedabad.
After the Prime Minister cast his vote in a polling booth in the Ranip area of Ahmedabad, the Gujarat Congress complained to the ECI over his “roadshow”. The Congress’ letter to the ECI read: “As per model code of conduct a road show or any other type of procession is not permissible on the polling day, The Prime Minister has completed a road show on his way to cast his vote. This is in gross contravention of the rules.” The Congress lodged over a dozen complaints and also accused the ECI of partisan approach in favour of the ruling party.
Gujarat’s Additional Chief Electoral Officer Kuldeep Arta told media that a report had been sought from the Election Officer in Ahmedabad but a roadshow had not been established as the “crowd was there on its own”.
The election authority also received complaints of malfunctioning EVMs (electronic voting machines) and VVPATs (voter verifiable paper audit trails) from several places, which impacted voting at these booths but polling proceeded smoothly overall.
The poll body said 41 ballot units, 40 control units and 109 VVPATs were replaced following complaints of malfunction in the initial hours of voting.
District-wise, Sabarkantha recorded the highest voting at 65.84 % while Ahmedabad district recorded the lowest turnout at 53.57 % till 5 p.m. In Vadodara, ECI data showed 58% voting.
Top contenders in the second phase include Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel; prominent Other Backward Class (OBC) leader Alpesh Thakor; Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel from the BJP; Leader of the Opposition, Sukhram Rathwa; former Union Minister Tushar Chaudhary; and former Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda.