On a day when 6 states in the country witnessed polling to get a mandate during ongoing by-polls hustings for all the seven segments, the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced the election schedule for Gujarat Assembly Elections on Thursday.
According to the CEO, the polling will be conducted in two phases i.e. on December 1 and 5 in Gujarat while the results will be declared on December 8. The CEO further said that there are 4.9 crore voters enrolled in the voter list this time and out of which a number of 3,24,422 new voters will franchise their right for the first time. For all of them, a total number of 51,782 polling stations have been formed out of which 1274 polling stations were specified as women only stations where only female staff was deployed.
The CEO also stated that a web casting facility will be provided at atleast 50 percent polling stations in the state. Apart from this, a number of 142 Model Polling stations. The Election Commission will also take care of the Disabled voters during the polling process. For them a number of 182 polling stations will be established. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar informed that shipping containers will be used as polling booths for the first time.
Apart from two mainstream parties such as BJP and Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejrival is also carrying out a vigorous campaign in the hustings this time and even fielded its candidates from scores of segments in the foray. It is said that the AAP Chief – who went to Delhi on a short visit from campaign in Gujarat, will visit again on Friday possibly to announce the name of the candidate for chief minister’s post.
During the 2017 elections in Gujarat, it was a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress. While the BJP won 99 seats in the elections last time, the Congress managed to secure 77 to them and retain the position of second strongest party in the state. However, this time the battle became a tri-corner fight between the BJP, Congress and the new born Aam Aadmi Party who made fast strides in the political domain since inception.
