People queued up since early morning to cast their ballot to decide the political fate of 851 candidates in the second and final phase of the bitterly fought Gujarat assembly elections.
The votes in all the 182 seats will be counted on December 18. Over 22 million people are eligible to cast their ballot.
Out of the 93 constituencies that went to polls on Thursday, as many as 52 were won by the BJP and 39 were grabbed by the Congress in 2012.
Among the assembly constituencies, the smallest is Dariapur (6 Sq.Km.) and the largest one is Radhanpur (2,544 Sq.Km.). By size of the electorate, the smallest is Limkheda with 1,87,245 electors and the largest being Ghatlodia with 3,52,316 electors.
In the second phase, the total number of EVMs to be used is 28,114 and the total number of polling stations is 25,558.
Association for Democratic Reforms said that out of 1815 candidates analyzed, 253 (14%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In 2012 Gujarat Assembly Elections, out of 1283 candidates analysed, 222(17%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.
As many as 154 (8%) candidates have declared serious criminal cases, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women etc. In 2012 Gujarat Assembly Elections, 92 (7%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Among the major parties, 46(25%) out of 181 candidates from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 56(32%) out of 176 candidates from Indian National Congress(INC), 17 (12%) out of 138 candidates from Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP), 9 (16%) out of 57 candidates from NCP, 4 (14%) out of 28 candidates from AAP, and 65 (8%) out of 791 Independent candidates analysed have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Regarding serious criminal cases, among the major parties, 26(14%) out of 181 candidates from Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), 38 (22%) out of 176 candidates from Indian National Congress(INC), 0(7%) out of 138 candidates from Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP), 2 (7%) out of 28 candidates from AAP, 6 (11%) out of 57 candidates from NCP, and 36 (5%) out of 791 Independent candidates analysed have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
