Gujarat Assembly Polls: Voting Begins For First Phase Across 89 Seats

Gandhinagar: The stage is all set for the Gujarat assembly election as the polling for the first phase will be held today on 89 seats spread across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the state.

As many as 788 candidates are in the fray and Gujarat will witness a three-way contest between BJP, AAP, and Congress.

Voting will be held between 8 am and 5 pm on Thursday across 14,382 polling stations.

A total of 2,39,76,670 voters who will cast their votes by 5 pm today will decide the fate of 788 candidates who are in the fray for the first phase.

Out of the total number of electorates, 1,24,33,362 are males, 1,1,5,42,811 females and 497 are from the third gender.

Over 4 lakh PWD voters are eligible to cast their votes. Nearly 9.8 lakh senior citizen voters (80+) and nearly 10,000 voters who are 100 and above are eligible to vote.

According to the EC, there are 5,74,560 voters who are between 18 to 19 years of age while 4,945 voters are above 99 years of age.

There are 163 NRI voters, of which 125 are men and 38 are women. There are 14,382 voting centres, out of which 3,311 are in the urban areas and 11,071 in the rural areas.

Prominent candidates include Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel is contesting from Ghatlodia, AAP chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi from Khambhaliya, former Congress leader and BJP candidate Hardik Patel from Viramgam and Rivaba Jadeja, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, who is contesting from Jamnagar (North).