Modi factor led people of Gujarat’s cultural capital Vadodara to make a beeline for the polling booths. Vadodara recorded highest polling of 73.57 per cent, a giant leap of 21.55 per cent over 2009 figure of 49.02 per cent voting.
This meteoric jump in voting is apparently due to the presence of Modi and awareness campaign of Election Commission (EC). Besides, BJP’s organisational wing also put in extra efforts involving civil society along with BJP cadre, in order to mobilise votes. Sources say that this spectacular jump in voting pattern would definitely impact on the victory margin in favour of Narendra Modi.
Meanwhile, EC declared final figures of voter turnout for the 26 lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, which went to polls on Wednesday. According to the Commission, polling stood at 63.31 per cent, which is 15.41 per cent higher compared to 2009 lok Sabha polls (47.90 %).
Interestingly, four tribal dominated seats witnessed bumper voting. All these seats recorded more than 70 per cent voting, higher than Modi’s Vadodara constituency — with Bardoli leading at 74.59%. This is followed by Bharuch (74.54%), Valsad (74.09%) and Chhota Udepur (71.15%). Unlike Vadodara, it is difficult to assess that, which party would get benefit of higher voting in the tribal belt. At the moment, leaders of both — the Congress as well as the BJP are claiming that the high voter turnout in tribal areas would be an advantage for their parties.
However, the high turnout on other seats is being interpreted as advantageous to the BJP. All the 26 seats have recorded higher turnout than last time. Porbandar recorded the lowest voting of 52.31%. The seats which witnessed between 50-60% polling are Patan, Surendranagar, Jamnagar, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Kheda and Panchmahals while in Kutch, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad (East), Ahmedabad (West), Rajkot, Junagadh, Anand, Dahod, Surat and Navsari polling stood between 60% and 70%.