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After the first phase of polling ended on Saturday with around 68 percent of the electorate casting their votes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is once again on the campaign trail. Modi will be addressing four rallies on Sunday in Palanpur, Sanand, Kalol and Vadodara. These four areas are situated in north and central Gujarat, which go to polls on 14 December.
Gujarat on Saturday held the first of its two-phase polling. The election was peaceful, barring some incidents of skirmishes, while around 100 complaints of EVM malfunctioning were received. Till late in the evening, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Gujarat office, BB Swain was still gathering data on the final polling figures for the first phase, which would decide the fate of 977 candidates for 89 Assembly seats in 19 districts of Saurashtra-Kutch and South Gujarat. Barring two or three incidents, the first phase went off peacefully. “We are very happy that despite apprehensions, everywhere the elections were carried out very peacefully, except a couple of incidents, but that too were outside the polling booths,” said Swain. [caption id=“attachment_4251153” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses an election campaign rally, at Dhandhuka village of Ahmedabad district on Wednesday. PTI[/caption] A clash occurred between two individuals outside a polling booth in Jaar village in Bhayavadar taluka of Rajkot district. While coming out from the polling booth with his wife, a person, Jann Mohammad Sora, had an altercation with Piyush Babubhai, both aged around 30. The two were rushed to the Upleta general hospital after receiving injuries in the clash. In Surendranagar’s Sayla taluka’s Chorvira vilage, a clash occurred between two groups outside the polling area. In another incident in Junagadh, a person named Mitbhai Arunbhai who was not a voter, accompanied a person, Amitbhai Thummar, inside the polling booth and started taking pictures, which was stopped by a woman constable on duty. An altercation followed. An FIR has been filed by both the persons against the constable, Vijetaben Parmar. In Amod near Jambusar, a voter told the Returning Officer (RO) that the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was showing a different voting preference than the one for which he had voted. However, when the RO asked him to file a written complaint, he refused. The final hour of ballotting saw an increase of about 10 percent voting. In Amreli, in the last hour, polling increased from 56.38 percent to 67 percent, while in Rajkot at 4 pm it was 60.32 percent which increased to 70 percent at the close of polling at 5 pm. Similarly, about 10 percent increase was seen in Devbhoomi Dwarka during the final hour. In Surat, it was 60.64 percent at 4 pm and rose to 70 after an hour. The polling was carried out even after the declared time of 5 pm in some places as people were still lined up in queues at polling booths, which went on till 6.30 pm. The maximum polling was seen in Navsari and Morbi districts with 75 percent, whereas the minimum was in Bhavnagar and Botad districts with 60 percent. The polling percentage in 2012 Assembly polls stood at 70.7 percent, while in 2007 it was around 60 percent. With inputs from IANS For LIVE updates on the first phase of Gujarat election click here