Elderly citizens on way back home after casting their vote in Rajkot on Saturday. PTIGujarat Phase 1Lowest polling in Kutch at 63%, Morvi in Saurashtra tops at 75%10 Dec 2017 | 1:48 AMAHMEDABAD: An estimated 68 per cent of the 2.12 crore electorate cast their vote in 89 constituencies in 19 districts in the Kutch-Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions today, sealing the fate of 977 candidates in the first phase of the two-phased polling in the Assembly elections.
[ + read story ] Manas Dasgupta
Ahmedabad, December 9
An estimated 68 per cent of the 2.12 crore electorate cast their vote in 89 constituencies in 19 districts in the Kutch-Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions today, sealing the fate of 977 candidates in the first phase of the two-phased polling in the Assembly elections. The second phase of polling in the central and north Gujarat regions will be held on December 14.
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Today’s polling was about 2 per cent less than that in the 19 districts in the 2012 elections. Kutch, which has six Assembly seats, recorded the lowest turnout at 63 per cent, while Morvi in Saurashtra and Navsari in south Gujarat clocked a high of 75 per cent, Election Commission sources said. Of the 89 seats, Saurashtra accounted for 48 seats, Kutch six and south Gujarat 35. Of these, the BJP had won 63, Congress 24, and NCP and JD(U) one each in 2012.
Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala specially flew in from Bengaluru to cast his vote in the Rajkot West constituency. It was Vala’s seat from where Chief Minister Vijay Rupani is re-contesting. Vala had won the seat seven times before he assumed the gubernatorial post and on his resignation Rupani had won the seat in a byelection two years ago.
On the contentious issue of EVMs and VVPATs, several complaints were made about the alleged malfunctioning of the machines. Sources said at nearly 200 polling booths or stations, the EVMs or VVPAT machines had to be replaced because of malfunctioning. At one booth in Kalyanpura under the Jamnagar rural constituency, 168 voters reportedly refused to cast votes after allegations that every vote cast for the Congress candidate was going to the BJP. Official sources, however, said they had no information.
Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhvadia, contesting in Porbandar, lodged a complaint with the Election Commission with a copy of a screen shot claiming that the EVM was connected with WiFi enabling anyone to cast vote from outside the booth. However, the Election Commission later rubbished the allegation.
“The inquiry has been carried out and there is no reason to believe that the machine was hacked,” BB Swain, Chief Election Officer, said.
BJP spokesman Sambit Patra attributed the Congress complaints against the EVM or VVPAT machines as “nothing but finding excuses for certain defeat in the elections when the results are declared on December 18”.
Both the contesting rivals claimed upper hand after the polling. While Ahmed Patel, political adviser to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, claimed the Congress was certain to get 110 to 120 seats in the 182-member Assembly, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the BJP incharge of the state elections, predicted a “landslide” victory. “The kind of analysis and information that we are receiving, the BJP is slated for a big win,” Jaitley claimed.
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