Gandhinagar/New Delhi:

Exit polls across the board were predicting BJP victory in Gujarat assembly polls even as the Election Commission has said that as per the primary estimates around 68.70% voting has taken place in the second and final phase of the polls today.

The polling for the election which have become a ‘do-or-die’ affair for both ruling BJP and main opposition Congress and a battle of prestige for PM Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah as well as Congress President Rahul Gandhi began in 93 segments of 14 districts in North and Central Gujarat at 8 am today and ended at 5pm.

Addressing a press conferenence in New Delhi Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said that barring a few incidents the polling was by and large peaceful. 68.70% was the initial estimate of polling for second phase and the final figures may differ. He said that district wise the initial estimate of polling percentage was Ahmedabad (63), Banaskantha (74), Patan (66), Mahesana (75), Sabarkantha (77), Aravlalli (66), Gandhinagar (65), Anand (73), Kheda (70), Mahisagar (65), Panchmahal (72), Dahod (60), Vadodara (73) and Chota Udepur (70). Polling in the second phase last time around was record 71.85%. In the first phase actual voting of 66.75% war recorded while the EC had in its primary estimate had announced 68%. Last time first phase polling was record 70.75%.

PM Narendra Modi voted at Nishan Vidyalya booth in Ranip of Sabarmati constituency of Ahmedabad. He stood in a queue with common voters for that. Veteran BJP leader L K Advani and Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley voted at different booths in Shapur and Vejalpur locality of the city. Amit Shah voted in Naranpura. Governor O P Kohli in Gandhinagar. The nonagenarian mother of PM Narendra Modi, 97 year old Hiraba was among the early voters and she voted in Gandhinagar where she lives with the younger brother of PM. former CM Anandiben Patel voted in Ghatlodia, Alpesh Thakor voted in Endala of Ahmedabad, incumbent minister Pradipsinh Jadeja voted in Endala in Viramgam of Ahmedabad. Deputy CM Nitin Patel voted in Kadi of Mahesana. PAAS leader Hardik Patel voted in Viramgam. VHP leader Pravin Togadia cast his vote at a booth in Thaltej area of Ahmedabad. Congress state president Bharat Solanki and former president and party candidate Siddharth Patel cast their votes in Dedarada and Dabhoi of central Gujarat respectively
At some places polling was delayed owing to technical glitches in EVMs. Clashes were also reported from some place including Hansapur in Visnagar of Mahesana. Polling at Bhesana booth in Mahesana was halted for over 3 hours owing to complaints regarding EVM. Stone pelting also took place on the vehicle of BJP leader Praful Damor in Fatepur Patiya of Dahod district. Two groups also clashed in Tharad area of Banaskantha district over alleged bogus voting. In another incident not related to poll two groups in Wankaner village of Savli taluka clashed and torched some vehicles and shops.

Meanwhile Chief Electoral officer B B Swain said that the complaint of Congress regarding alleged ‘road-show’ of PM Narendra Modi after casting vote at today was more of an anticipatory nature and its inquiry has been handed over to collector Avantika Singh.

The election commission so also far has not found any substance in the allegations of blue tooth connectivity of EVMs .

Addressing a press conference in Gandhinagar Swain said that at 1151am Congress made a complaint that there was huge gathering on the booth in Ranip and there might be a road show by PM Modi who was coming to vote there.

‘We have handed over the inquiry to Collector Ahmedabad under whose jurisdiction the place falls. She is preparing a report on it. But the complaint was more of an anticipatory nature,’ he said.

He also said that complaints of blue tooth connection with EVMs from Ahmedabad, Panchmahal, Patan, Banaskantha, Kheda and Mahesana districts have been received. In Ahmedabad it was regarding ECO 210 blue tooth connection near booth number 294, 295 and 296 of Ghatlodia constituency in Ahmedabad. Such connection of ARC 05 have been received from booth 268, 267, 280, 251 Godhara constituency of Panchmahal district.

‘Like first phase we are inquiring each one of these but there seems to be no substance in it. These must be blue tooth connections of some people in the vicinity. They may be some one standing in the queue to vote. But none of the blue tooth can connect to EVMs. This blue tooth network were being seen in other phones,’ he said adding that in the first phase it was found to be a phone of a polling agent in Porbandar.

To a query he said that an incident of clash between two groups has taken place in Savli area of Vadodara but it has nothing to do with election.

Earlier the voting which started on a slow note this morning with just 12.39% in first two hours peaked up later and by 2 pm it reached 47.40 and by 4pm 62.37.
Elaborate security arrangements were made for the elections. Around 2 lakh poll personnel and over one lakh security personnel including the central paramilitary forces were deployed for the conduct of polls. Re-polling on 6 booths in Jamjodhpur (2 booths), Una (2 booths), Nizar (1 booth) and Umbergaon (1 booth) of first phase was also took place with the second phase poll. It was necessitated as the presiding officers had not removed mock-poll data before the commencement of the actual polls.

Of the seats going to polls 52 were won by ruling BJP, 39 by Congress and one each by NCP and Independent in the last assembly polls of 2012.

The assembly polls are a matter of prestige for PM Modi and Shah for Gujarat being their home-turf while it is so for Rahul as it is the first major election after his becoming president of Congress.
. Like the first phase, the steering for campaign for the second phase for ruling BJP was also in the hands of PM Narendra Modi who organized altogether 15 rallies while that for main opposition Congress was led by its leader Rahul Gandhi who also held over a dozen rallies in North and Central Gujarat. While BJP continued to maintain that development was its main and sole poll plank and Congress tried to attack it on various issues including the alleged failure of issues like demonetization and poor implementation of GST etc, yet the narrative changed from both sides. BJP alleged that Pakistan and terror elements were trying to interfere in Gujarat elections. The issue of Mani Shankar Aiyar calling PM Modi ‘Neech’ also became prominent. BJP also alleged Congress of communal consolidation of votes after its cast based equation making. Congress also took a retaliatory posture and hit back at many issues. Bitter questions and counter questions were thrown at each other. Though other leaders were also in to the campaign including ministers and former ministers yet the center stage was with Modi and Rahul. PAAS leader Hardik Patel was also organizing several rallies and road shows against BJP.
A controversy erupted yesterday on the poll eve regarding the telecast of Rahul Gandhi’s interview by few local channels. EC ordered to file FIR against them for violation of the model code of conduct.

For the second phase there are a total of 851 candidates in the fray with DY CM Nitin Patel (Mahesana) , Minister Bhupendra Chudasama (Dholka), Shankar Chaudhary (Vav), Pradeepsinh Jadeja (Vatva) (All BJP) and Alpesh Thakor (Radhanpur), Siddharth Patel (Dabhoi) (both Congress) and congress supported independent Jignesh Mewani (Vadgam) etc being the prominent faces.BJP has fielded 93 candidates, Congress 81, BSP 75, AAP 8, JDU 14, NCP 28 Shiv Sena 17 and 170 form non recognized parties apart from 350 independents.

Maximum 34 candidates were in Mahesana while minimum 2 in Jhalod (ST) constituency. By area, the smallest is Dariapur (6 Sq.Km.) and the largest one is Radhanpur (2,544 Sq.Km.). By size of the Electorate, the smallest is Limkheda with 1,87,245 electors and the largest being Ghatlodia with 3,52,316 electors. Of the constituency 86 were with an electorate base of over 2 lakh. More than 50% of the electorates were below 40 years of age of which a little over 15% were under 25. The total number of voters was 22296867 of whom 10748977 were females and 455 third gender. Total 24575 booths were made for the polling.

Notably in the first phase in which 977 candidates including Vijay Rupani (Rajkot West), BJP state president Jeetu Vaghani (Bhavnagar West ), former Congress president Arjun Modhwadia (Porbandar) and senior leader Shaktisinh Gohil (Mandvi) were in fray, 66.75% voting took place.

The name of 14 districts going to polls and number of assembly segments in them in corresponding bracket is as follows Ahmedabad (21), Banaskantha (9), Patan (4), Mahesana (7), Sabarkantha (4), Aravlalli (3), Gandhinagar (5), Anand (7), Kheda (7), Mahisagar (2), Panchmahal (5), Dahod (6), Vadodara (9) and Chota Udepur (3). Counting will be held on December 18.

Of the 89 seats that went to polls in the first phase BJP during the last assembly poll in 2012 had won 63 seats while Congress had go only 22. Two were won by Keshubhai Patel led GPP which later merged with BJP and NCP and JDU had won one each. Of the 19 districts of first phase polls in 11 districts of Saurashtra (Surendranagar, Rajkot, Morbi, Jamnagar, Devbhomi-Dwarka, Porbandar, Gir-Somnath, Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad ) BJP had won 31 of the total 49 seats while Congress had got 15, NCP one and GPP 2. In the seven districts of South Gujarat (Narmada, Bharuch, Surat, Tapi, Navsari, Valsad, and Dangs ) of total 34 seats BJP had won a whopping 24, Congress six and JDU one. Of the six seats of Kutch BJP had won 5 and Congress the remaining one seat.

Over all of the 182 seats in the last assembly polls BJP had won 115, Congress 61, GPP and NCP 2 each, JDU and Independent One each. The magic figure for simple majority was 92.

Counting of votes would be done on December 18. Meanwhile all the 8 prominent exit polls were predicting BJP victory in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh.

DeshGujarat