Brief info on Gujarat Assembly Elections 2012

Chief Election Commission VS Sampath announced the poll dates on October 3, 2012. The terms of the current legislative assemby in Gujarat will expire on January 17, 2013. The Gujarat election this year will take place in two phases. Eighty-seven constituencies will go the poll in the first phase, i.e., December 13 while electorate in 95 constituencies will cast their ballots on December 17. The counting will take place on December 20.

Gujarat has 182 assembly constituencies, out of 13 are reserved for SCs and 26 for STs. A total of 3,78,15,306 electors will exercise their franchise. The state will have 44,496 polling stations in this election.

Sixty out of the 182 seats have been redrawn in Gujarat this year and fates of the two main parties, the BJP and Congress, are likely to be affected by the delimitation process.

The BJP has been in power for 17 years in the state and this year will mark the third successive occasion when the party will go to the election under the leadership of Narendra Modi. The Opposition, Congress, has not projected any chief ministerial candidate. It is led in the state assembly by Shaktisinh Gohil.

Another major player in this year's election is the Gujarat Parivartan Party led by former BJP leader and Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel. His party is expected to give the ruling party a tough time, particularly in the Saurashtra region. One of the big challenges of Narendra Modi this time will be to ensure the support of the Leuva Patel community.

The Gujarat election this year is projected as the semi-final before the mega final of 2014, the Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2007 polls, the BJP had won 117 out of total seats in the state while the Congress could bag just 59. Can it improve its tally this time?

OneIndia News