NEW DELHI, Nov 22: A total of 1,621 candidates have remained in the fray to vie for 182 seats in the Gujarat Assembly going for two-phase polling on December 1 and 5.
The deadline for the withdrawal of candidates in the Gujarat elections was Monday.
As many as 788 candidates are in the fray for 89 seats that will go to the polls in the first phase of elections while for the 93 seats going for the second phase of polling, there are 833 candidates in the fray.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded candidates on all 182 seats, while Congress has fielded candidates on 179 seats while it allocated three seats to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) as part of a pre-poll alliance. But with the NCP candidate withdrawing his nomination for Devgadh Baria seat, the party is contesting two seats.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also fielded candidates on all 182 seats, but its candidates withdrew his nomination from the Surat East seat, so it will end up contesting 181 seats. All Indian Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielded candidates in 14 Assembly seats but its candidates withdrew from Bapunagar seat.
Constituencies in the districts of Saurashtra-Kutch region and south Gujarat will go to the polls in the first phase. These districts are Valsad, Tapi, Dang, Navsari, Surat, Bharuch, Narmada, Botad, Bhavnagar, Amreli, Gir Somnath, Junagadh, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Morbi, Surendranagar and Kutch.
In the second phase, seats in the districts of central and north Gujarat, that is, Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Aravalli, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Anand, Kheda, Mahisagar, Panchmahal, Dahod, Vadodara and Chhota Udepur will go to the polls.
Counting of votes for both the phases will be held on December 8 along with the counting for the elections to the Himachal Pradesh state Assembly which went to a single phase polling on November 12.
(Manas Dasgupta)
