Gujarat: Poll panel issues notification for elections

No candidates turned up on the first day of filing nomination in Gujarat. The Election Commission issued the notification on Thursday for the polls in Gujarat, in which 26 Lok Sabha seats will go for General elections whereas 5 assembly seats will go for by-polls on April 23.

The chief electoral officer(CEO) in Gujarat Dr S Murali Krishna informed after the first day that no nomination form was submitted by candidates in any of the constituency. The last day of filing of nomination is April 4 and both the major parties in the state, BJP and Congress are yet to declare their candidates on many seats.

The BJP chief and Lok Sabha candidate of BJP on Gandhinagar seat Amit Shah is going to file nomination on March 30 while Vadodara candidate Ranjan Bhatt is going to file her nomination on Friday in presence of CM Vijay Rupani.

Sources from the office of CEO said, "The first day of filing nomination did not see any candidate turning up and that is because the names have not been declared on some of the seats. The process, however, will pick up the pace from Friday onwards."

Meanwhile, the CEO has issued the guidelines for the candidates for filing nomination on Thursday. The guidelines are pertaining to an oath to be taken by the candidate on the time of nomination filing, as per the Constitution of India.