Gujarat goes into the second and final phase of polling for the remaining 95 Vidhan Sabha seats on Monday that includes chief minister Narendra Modi and his Congress rival Shankersinh Vaghela and covers a voter population of 1.98 crores.
There are 820 candidates slugging it out for the 95 seats of north and central Gujarat as well as six seats of Kutch. The voting effectively covers 40 assembly seats in five districts of central Gujarat, 32 seats in five districts of north Gujarat ,17 seats of Ahmedabad and six seats of Kutch district.
The intense voting of the first phase which saw a record turnout of 70.75 per cent in Saurashtra and south Gujarat besides four seats of Ahmedabad district on December 13 has set the pace and heightened expectations for the second phase.
Besides Modi and Vaghela, key members of the ruling party cabinet as well as Vaghela’s son, Mahendrasinh are also in the fray. Facing Modi is IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife Shweta doing duty for the Congress, while ministers Anandiben Patel, Amit Shah, Saurabh Patel, Ramanlal Vora, Jaynarayan Vyas, Pradipsinh Jadeja and Fakirbhai Vaghela, among others, are before the electorate for a renewed vote of popular approval.