Ahead of the second phase of polling in Gujarat on December 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met his mother Heeraben Modi and sought her blessings at her residence in Raison area of Gandhinagar. He spent about 45 minutes with his mother before leaving for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Party (BJP) headquarters ‘Kamalam’ in Gandhinagar, where he was received by Amit Shah, State BJP President CR Patil and other senior leaders.
PM Modi, who was in Gujarat to campaign for the ongoing assembly elections, launched his campaign on Friday with over 31 rallies and led three major roadshows.
Apart from Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, CM Bhupendra Bhai Patel, former Deputy CM Nitin Patel and many other Union ministers will also exercise their rights in the second phase of Gujarat elections on Monday (December 5).
PM Modi, Amit Shah and CM Bhupendra Patel will vote in Ahmedabad. The Prime Minister will cast his vote on Monday morning at a polling station set up at a high school in Ranip area. Modi is a registered voter from Ranip constituency and had cast his vote in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and in the previous elections. Shah will cast his vote at a municipal sub-regional office in Naranpura area of the city.
Out of the total 182 assembly seats in Gujarat, voting was held for 89 seats on December 1. Voting for the remaining 93 seats, including 16 in Ahmedabad city, will be held on Monday.
For 93 seats, 833 candidates are in the fray from various political parties including BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the new election. According to the state election body, the candidates also include 285 independents.
The BJP and Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP are contesting on all 93 seats, while the Congress is contesting on 90 seats and its ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has fielded candidates on two seats.
Among other parties, Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) has fielded 12 candidates and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded 44 candidates.
The first phase of polling was held on 1 December for 89 seats in Saurashtra, Kutch and South Gujarat regions. The counting of votes for all 182 seats in Gujarat will take place on December 8.
A total of 2.51 crore voters, including 1.29 crore men and 1.22 crore women, are eligible to exercise their franchise for the second phase of elections. According to the Election Commission, there are 5.96 lakh voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years.
The election body has set up 14,975 polling stations, for which 1.13 lakh poll staff have been deployed.
(with inputs from agencies)
