Poll Bugles to be silent today for 1st phase

Fate of 987 candidates in 19 constituencies will be decided by

around 2 crore voters
Gandhinagar,

The poll bugles of all the political parties will die down Thursday evening for the first
phase of Gujarat assembly elections, which will be held for 89 constituencies in 19
districts of Kutch- Saurashtra and southern regions of the state. Polling will be carried
out on the 9th, where fate of 977 candidates will be decided by around 2 crore people of
the regions.

As Gujarat breaths a sigh of relief after the peacefully passing away of the dreaded
'Ockhi' cyclone, there would also be peace and calm in certain parts of the state, as all
the cacophony for the state assembly elections for the first phase in 19 district will die
down on Thursday evening.

According to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) of elections, all the political parties
will be barred from public campaigning through meetings or rallies after 5 in the
evening on Thursday. However, they will be able to carry out their campaigns through
door to door meetings. This time, through an amendment in the rules, the party workers
will be allowed to wear their caps, mufflers depicting party symbols in these door to
door campaigning, but they will have to ensure it not make it public.

The first phase of the elections which will be held on the 9th will have polling for 89
state assembly constituencies situated in 19 districts of the Kutch, Saurashtra and south
regions of Gujarat. Total 977 candidates are contesting for these 89 seats of Kutch,
Morbi, Jamnagar, Surendranagar, Devbhoomi Dwarka, Rajkot, Botad, Porbandar,
Junagadh, Amreli, Gir Somnath, Bhavnagar, Bharuch, Narmada, Surat, Tapi, Navsari ,
Dang and Valsad districts.

At present, out of the 89 seats, the ruling party BJP holds 67 seats, opposition Congress
holds 16, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) holds 1, the Janata Dal United (JDU)
holds 1 and the rest 2 seats independents. The two seats held by Congress for Jasdan and
Jamnagar rural had defected and resigned from the seat.

The most striking battle in the first phase is for the Rajkot West constituency seat, which
is presently held by the Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani. He will be challenged by
the Congress candidate Indraneel Rajyaguru, who is the sitting MLA from the Rajkot
East seat. Another Congress sitting MLA Paresh Dhanani from Amreli is challenged by
a former Congress leader and now BJP sitting MLA from Lathi constituency.

The Congress has tried to woo the voters with their manifesto which was declared on
Monday, while the ruling saffron party is yet to come out with their poll promises. On
the 7th and the last day of campaign, the prime minister Narendra Modi, the national
president Amit Shah, the chief minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani, Uttar Pradesh chief
minister Yogi Adityanath, will be addressing several public meetings for the saffron
party. While several Congress senior leaders will be doing the last minute poll
campaigning for the first phase. The Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi earlier
canceled his three day tour due to the 'Ockhi' alerts, who will now be campaigning for
the second phase of the elections from the 8th.

It is also interesting that the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) which has been
agitating against the ruling BJP government since more than two years, have been
campaigning for people not to vote for the saffron party, a subtle message for people to
vote for the opposition. The PAAS leader Hardik Patel will be holding a massive rally in
Bhavnagar simultaneously with the rally held by the state BJP president Jitu Vaghani in
Bhavnagar on Thursday.

Ends/ Amit

EOS/ Amit Cowper/ December 7th 2017/ 11: 10 pm/ 629 words