With the temperature likely to soar and touch 44 degrees Celsius in Gujarat, will Modi land buck the national trend of high voting on WednesdayIJ
After much consideration on soaring temperature in Gujarat, the State Election Commission has also extended voting time from 7 am to 6 pm instead of 8 am to 5 pm.Incidentally, in the last lok Sabha polls (in April 2009), the mercury rose to 40 degrees Celsius; especially in Ahmedabad where the temperature recorded was 44.3 degrees Celsius. last time the turnout in the State was 48 per cent.
Even political leaders across party lines believe that the extreme weather will have an impact on the turnout. However, looking to the awareness campaign by the Election Commission, various NGOs and political parties, maximum voting may happen in the morning and evening. Of the 4.05 crore voters in the State, 11.67 lakh are first time voters. There are 5.07 lakh voters who are 80 years or above and 8,143 voters are above the age of 100 years.
Meanwhile, the State Election Commission has said that it is fully prepared to conduct free and fair elections. More than 1 lakh security personnel are deployed to maintain law and order in the State during the elections for 26 lok Sabha seats and by-polls for seven Assembly segments.“Voting will take place at 45,380 polling booths in 27,367 polling booth locations. 1.24 lakh Electronic Voting Machines will be used,” said Anita Karwal, Gujarat’s chief electoral officer.
The Election Commission has put approximately 23 per cent of the total polling booths under critical or vulnerable category, where additional security measures have been implemented.As many as 334 candidates are contesting for lok Sabha elections in the State and 78 are in fray for the Assembly by-elections.The BJP is contesting from all 26 lok Sabha seats, the Congress from 25 and Aam Aadmi Party from 24 constituencies. As many as 67 candidates from minority community are also contesting either as independents or party candidates. Besides, 157 independent candidates are in the fray.
Fate of the top political leaders including BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, former deputy Prime Minister lK Advani, former Union Textile Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, Union Ministers — Tushar Chaudhry, Bharatsinh Solanki and Dinsha Patel will be decided on Wednesday.With campaign ending on Monday evening, candidates resorted to door-to-door campaign. Party workers are giving final push by contacting maximum voters.
The campaign in Gujarat remained Modi-centric. While the BJP’s campaign revolved around Modi-For-PM, the Congress’s campaign was nothing but all about stopping him from becoming the Prime Minister. AAP only talked anti-Modi during its campaign in the State.