EC to announce schedule for Gujarat Assembly elections today; when and where to watch

The Election Commission will announce the dates for the Gujarat Assembly elections 2022 on Thursday. According to reports, the poll panel will make the announcement at 12 noon today at a press conference. 

The poll panel had surprised experts after it announced the dates for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections but skipped Gujarat, last month. 

The poll panel announcement will come at a time the BJP-led government is grappling with the political fallout of the Morbi bridge collapse in which 135 people died. 

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You can watch the press conference on Zee News or click here for live streaming. 

The BJP has been ruling the state for 25 years. The party, however, has been getting a strong challenge from the Aam Aadmi Party, which is trying to expand its footprints across the country. 

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has governments in Delhi and Punjab. It is drumming up support in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and wants to replace Congress as the principal opposition. 

The Congress had been a close second in the 2017 Gujarat elections. However, the party's state unit appears to be fragmented now. It is also getting a dual challenge from BJP and AAP. 

Kejriwal has said that the upcoming election is a BJP vs AAP contest. 

The Congress, however, says it is getting a good response in Gujarat.

Gujarat is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the two tallest leaders of the BJP. 

The BJP has been contesting the elections on the plank of development and Hindutva. The party called the AAP anti-Hindu. 

Kejriwal also threw a curved ball at BJP with his demand for Laxmi-Ganesh figures on currency notes. The BJP claimed the demand was a ruse to hide the AAP's anti-Hindu face.