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Nearly half of Gujarat votes

Nearly half of Gujarat’s 3.6 crore voters exercised their franchise to elect 26 MPs in one of the most lacklustre elections.

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On Thursday, one of the hottest days of the decade, nearly half of Gujarat’s 3.6 crore voters exercised their franchise to elect 26 members of parliament from the state in one of the most lacklustre elections.

The state registered almost 49% voter turnout, much higher than the 45% registered during the 2004 election. The turnout proved all the poll pundits and psephologists who had predicted a much lower voter turnout, wrong.

As is characteristic of elections in Gujarat, polling was peaceful. There were no reports of any major outbreak of violence or of widespread mismanagement, which made the polls in the state a copybook election. The day saw the political fate of Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate LK Advani and three union ministers from the Congress party — Shankersinh Vaghela, Dinsha Patel and Naran Rathwa — sealed in EVMs.

The polls will prove a litmus test for chief minister Narendra Modi’s competence as an election strategist as he has been the star campaigner of the BJP in Gujarat and many other states. If the BJP improves its tally in the state from 14 out of 26 seats it won in 2004 (which is not unlikely), he will be unstoppable on his way to Delhi.

For the Congress, which had 12 seats in the 14th Lok Sabha, this is an important battle as UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and prime minister Manmohan Singh have all campaigned for the party in the state.

Both the main camps were heard making claims about sweeping the polls, the din being louder in the BJP camp which has been claiming that it will pocket 20 of the 26 seats.
Interestingly, Junagadh in Saurashtra topped the voting charts with the constituency registering over 58% voting while adjoining Amreli, where only 40% of the voters exercised their franchise, was among the poor performers. Surendranagar, with only 38% voting, was the last on the list while Dahod and Porbandar were slightly better with 40% polling.

Among the constituencies that had more than 50% of electors coming out to press the button were Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Ahmedabad (West), Chhota Udepur, Bardoli and Bharuch. Overall, a higher than usual voter turnout was witnessed in parts of Saurashtra region, and in north Gujarat.

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