Gujarat recorded an estimated 55.22 percent turnout, till 5 p.m., on 25 Lok Sabha seats, voting for which was held on Tuesday. The final figures are expected by midnight, the state election commission said.
The BJP is aiming for a hat-trick in its model state. It had won all the seats in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
In 2019, Gujarat recorded 64.11 percent turnout.
As per the figures till 5 pm, the highest voting turnout was recorded on the Valsad seat (68.12 percent). In 2019, Valsad recorded 75.22 percent turnout. The lowest turnout till 5 p.m. was recorded on the Amreli seat (45.59 percent). In 2019, Amreli had recorded 55.75 percent voting. The temperatures in most of the constituencies soared above 40 degrees Celsius in the afternoon on Tuesday.
Last month, Mukesh Dalal, the BJP candidate from Surat, was declared elected unopposed after the forms of the Congress candidate and his dummy were rejected on technical grounds. Later, other candidates withdrew from the fray.
Among the key contenders in the fray include Amit Shah, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala, C R Paatil, and Mansukh Vasava of the BJP. From the Congress, Amit Chavda, Tushar Chaudhary, Geniben Thakor, Paresh Dhanani, and Jenny Thummar are among those who contested. Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party candidate Chaitar Vasava contested from Bharuch seat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the early voters. He cast his vote in Nishan School, Naranpura, which falls in the Gandhinagar LS constituency.
Over a month-long campaign, the BJP focussed on the leadership of Modi, his guarantees, and the Ram Temple. The BJP leaders also brought in the reference of the Ram Temple. The saffron party leaders also criticized the Congress manifesto.
On the other hand, the Congress leaders hit out at the Modi government and held that it had not fulfilled any of its promises. The Congress campaign was spearheaded by party leaders Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. She visited Gujarat twice.
Though like other parts of the country, Gujarat too faced the issue of inflation and unemployment, the key focus of the election shifted to the Kshatriya stir. Since the last week of March, the Kshatriyas in the state have been protesting against the BJP and they called for the party’s boycott after the party failed to change Union Fisheries Minister Parshottam Rupala as the candidate from Rajkot.
Rupala’s statement that the royals maintained relations with the colonial rulers and married their daughters to them did not go down with the Kshatriyas.
The voting in Gujarat took place without any major untoward incident. However, the opposition Congress had given several complaints to the state election commission. Among the complaints include misuse of the government machinery by the BJP and police officers acting as polling agents. In Juhapura, Ahmedabad, the Congress alleged, voters’ lists and forms of polling agents of 84 polling booths were snatched away by the goons on Monday night.
Also Read: Will Gujarat strike a BJP Hattrick?
