Gujarat elections: First phase polling tomorrow

Ahmedabad, Dec (UNI) After a gruelling campaigning which saw fiery exchanges between arch rivals the Congress and the BJP, the stage is set in Gujarat for tomorrow's first round of polling to 87 Assembly seats, spread across Saurashtra, Kutch and South Gujarat, amid tight security.

A 17.9 million-strong electorate will decide the fate of 669 candidates in the fray. The rest 92 Assembly constituencies will go to polls on December 16.

Stakes are high for both the Congress and the BJP as reverberations of the outcome of the fiercely fought elections to the 182-member House will be felt even at national level.

While the BJP is contesting all the 87 seats in the first phase, the Congress has fielded 82 candidates, leaving the rest five to its allies. There are a total of 53 women contestants.

While Saurashtra accounts for 52 seats, there are six in Kutch and 29 in South Gujarat.

A total of 19,924 polling booths have been set up across these constituencies, of which 4,834 booths have been identified as senstive and 1,306 as hyper-sensitive. All the booths are equipped with electronic voting machines.

Tight security arrangements are in place to ensure smooth conduct of polls. Over 52,000 central paramilitary forces have been deployed at the booths.

About 1.20 lakh government employees have already fanned out to these regions to conduct the election.

A band of 3,397 Central Government employees working in the state, have been appointed as micro-observers. They will be posted at notified booths to monitor the poll process.

All election related materials have been despatched to the destinations and security forces have already taken up positions at every booth, he said.

''All steps have been taken to ensure that peaceful voting takes place,'' said Chief Electoral Officer Vinod Babbar.

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