Gujarat elections 2017: Final phase 1 turnout at 66.75%, says EC

A total of 66.75% voters cast their votes in the first phase of the state assembly elections held on Saturday, officials said on Sunday, a day after pegging the approximate turnout at 68%. The turnout in the 2012 assembly elections was 72.02%, which means the turnout in the first phase is more than 5% lower than the overall polling in the last elections.

Voting statistics released by the State's Chief Electoral Officer show that 1.42 crore out of 2.12 crore eligible voters exercised their right to vote in the elections to 89 assembly seats in Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat.

Out of 1.11 crore eligible male voters, 76.60 lakh cast their votes. In the case of female voters, 65.11 lakh cast their votes as against 1.02 crore eligible voters.

"The male turnout in the first phase was 68.98%, and female turnout was 64.30%," officials said.

The statistics shows that out of the 247 third gender voters, only 89, or 36%, exercised their right to vote.

As is the case in almost every election, tribal dominated districts reported the highest turnout. Narmada district recorded 79.15% turnout, and was followed by Tapi with 78.56% and Navsari with 73.19%.

Morbi district in Saurashtra also recorded exactly 73.19% turnout in Saturday's elections, and was the only district outside the tribal belt among the top three.

As far as the other tribal dominated districts are concerned, Bharuch recorded 73.01% voter turnout, Valsad 72.69%, and Dangs 72.64%, the statistics show.

Gir Somnath district of Saurashtra saw 68.61% voter turnout. Rajkot, the home town of chief minister Vijay Rupani, was eighth in terms of turnout with 66.78%.

In Surat, which has 16 assembly seats, including five dominated by Patidar community, and three tribal reserved seats, the turnout was 66.39%. BJP had won all 12 assembly seats in Surat city in 2012, but a failure to repeat its performance, owing to the Patidar anger, could hurt its chances of forming the government again.

Surendranagar saw 65.27% turnout, the tenth highest among the 19 districts, as per the data.

Incidentally, Saurashtra, a traditional stronghold of BJP, where the BJP had won 33 out of 48 seats on offer, saw much lower voter turnout as compared with south Gujarat.

Officials said that Devbhumi Dwarka recorded 59.39% voter turnout, which was the lowest among all 19 districts. It was followed by Amreli with 61.29% voting. Congress leaders Paresh Dhanani and Virji Thummar, and BJP leaders Dileep Sanghani and Bavku Undhad were among the candidates in fray from different seats in Patidar-dominated Amreli.

Bhavnagar, from where state BJP president Jitu Vaghani was among the candidates, saw 61.56% turnout of voters, which was the third lowest among all the districts.

Porbandar, the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi, from where Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia, minister Babu Bokhiria and Godmother Santokben Jadeja's son and NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja were contesting, recorded the fourth lowest turnout at 61.86%.

Botad district, from where former heavyweight minister Saurabh Patel and minister Atmaram Parmar were among the key contestants, saw 62.08% voting, the fifth lowest.

Kutch, the second largest district in the country in terms of area, from where senior Congress MLA Shaktisinh Gohil and BJP MLA Nima Acharya were among the prominent contestants, recorded 63.95% turnout, the data showed.

HIGHEST TURNOUT

District Voting (%)

Narmada 79.15

Tapi 78.56

Navsari 73.19

Morbi 73.19

Bharuch 73.01

LOWEST TURNOUT

District Voting (%)

Devbhumi Dwarka 59.39

Amreli 61.29

Bhavnagar 61.56

Porbandar 61.86

Botad 62.08

OVERALL VOTERS

Total Voters: 2,12,31,652

Votes cast: 1,41,71,717

Turnout: 66.75%

Male

Voters: 1,10,05,933

Votes Cast: 76,60,518

Turnout: 68.98%

Female

Voters: 1,01,25,472

Votes Cast: 65,11,110

Turnout: 64.30%

Third Gender

Voters: 247

Votes Cast: 89

Turnout: 36%

(Source: Gujarat CEO)