Gujarat Assembly Elections to be held on Dec 9,14; Counting on Dec 18

The Election Commission on Wednesday said that the assembly elections in Gujarat would be held in two phases on December 9 and 14. The counting of votes would be held on December 18

89 assembly constituencies would go to polls during the first phase while 93 assemblies will vote in the second phase.

Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti said that VVPAT machines would be used in all polling stations. He also said that polling will be held across 50,128 polling booths.

"Model Code of Conduct shall be in place immediately; arrangements have been made to enforce MCC..Differently-abled voters will be given preference at polling booths..102 polling stations will have 100% women personnel," he said.

The CEC said polling booths would be randomly selected and VVPAT slips would be counted.

VVPAT is a machine which dispenses a slip with the symbol of the party for which a person has voted.

A ceiling of Rs 28 lakh per candidate has been fixed for election spending.

"Candidates will have to open new bank accounts for election spending," Joti said.

The CEC urged government officials to discharge duties in impartial and fair manner.

Gujarat Assembly Elections: Important Dates

The EC had drawn flak from the opposition parties for not announcing the Gujarat polls date along with that of Himachal Pradesh where elections are scheduled to be held on November 9.

The Congress party in particular was very critical of the Election Comission for withholding Gujarat election dates, accusing the poll panel of working on the directions from the Centre.

The Congress had alleged that the NDA government had pressurised the EC to delay the announcement so that the Prime Minister could announce sops to his home state before the model code of conduct came into force.

The EC, had on its part, said that the flood relief work was still underway in Gujarat because of which poll dates could not be announced. It said the same government apparatus which is engaged in flood relief work is needed for conducting elections.

The Gujarat elections would be a trilateral contest between Indian National Congress (INC), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) which is contesting for the first time from the state.

The Gujarat Assembly has 182 seats and the current assembly has 118 MLAs of BJP, 42 from Congress, 2 members of NCP and one member of JD (U).

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