GUJARAT registered its highest ever voter turnout at 71.30 per cent in the assembly elections held on December 13 and 17, surpassing the previous high of 64.70 per cent recorded in the 1995 elections, officials said in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (December 18).
While 70.75 per cent votes were polled in the first phase of elections on December 13, the second and final phase of voting on Monday (December 17) recorded 71.85 per cent turnout, additional chief electoral officer Ashok Manek said.
He attributed the high turnout to the extensive voter awareness campaign taken up by the Election Commission. Counting of votes will start on Thursday (December 20).
The state assembly election is the toughest electoral test for chief minister Narendra Modi who is seeking a third term in office. Modi is contesting from Maninagar in Ahmedabad.
In the 2002 assembly elections, held in the aftermath of the Godhra riots, 61.55 per cent votes were polled, while in the previous assembly polls in December 2007, the voter turnout was 59.77 per cent; both times the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the elections.
Polling this month was marred by a firing incident involving Jetha Bharwad, BJP member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from Sahera in Panchmahal district, in which four people were injured. Bharwad has been detained and an investigation is on.
Polling was held in 95 constituences -17 in Ahmedabad, 40 in five districts – Vadodara, Dahod, Panchmahal, Kheda and Anand-of central Gujarat, 32 in Patan, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar and Banaskantha – of north Gujarat and six in Kutch district. In the first phase, voting took place in 87 assembly segments.
The BJP has a strength of 117 in the outgoing 182-member House.
