Ahmedabad/ New Delhi: Vitriolic speeches, personal attacks and the country’s big leaders roughing it out on the campaign trail — the Gujarat Assembly election was all about personalities and on Sunday their fates will be out.
Counting of millions of votes cast during the two-phased election will begin by 0800 hours IST and the first result is expected by 0010 hours IST. Three major exit polls have predicted that the BJP will win. CNN-IBN has given 92-100 seats to the BJP, Star News has given it 103 seats and NDTV reckons the party will get between 90-110 seats.
CNN-IBN has given 77-85 seats to the Congress, Star TV has given the party 76 seats and NDTV 70-95 seats.
In 2002, under Chief Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, the BJP secured 129 seats in the 182-member House. The Congress got just 51 seats. The polling percentage then was 61 percent. This time it has been slightly higher.
Both parties have questioned the accuracy of the exit polls on the basis of their past reputation, the sample size of the respondents and the limited periphery from where the samples were collected.
"I do not go by the findings of such polls. They have failed to gauge the presence of a strong under current in favour of Narendrabhai. People have come out in large numbers to vote for the work done in the last five years under his leadership," Shashiranjan Yadav of BJP's IT Cell said.
State Congress President Bharatsinh Solanki says: "The voting pattern showing a higher turnout in rural areas goes in our favour. Traditional Congress voters came out in large numbers. We are sure to form the government."
The BJP seems more confident of a win, as it has begun putting down the dissidence in its state unit after giving rebel leaders a long rope during the elections. The party has issued notices to senior leaders Keshubhai Patel and Kanshiram Rana who had led the dissidence movement during the elections.
In addition, the BJP has suspended two other leaders, Somabhai Patel and Vallabh Kathiria. There are chances of the dissidence factor putting a dampener on the BJP’s prospects in Saurashtra, Kutch and south Gujarat.
During the campaign for these elections, local issues took a back seat once Modi's development plank gave way to issues of security and terrorism, becoming the central theme of both the main parties.
The Election Commission had to step in to keep the poll campaign in check after both the Congress and BJP spewed venom at each other.
The commission has set up 37 counting stations throughout the state to count votes polled in electronic voting machines. PTI reports around 8,000 officials will be involved in the counting of votes and they will be deployed on counting tables on Sunday morning.
Elections were held on December 11 and 16. In the first phase, Saurashtra, Kutch and South Gujarat regions voted in 87 assembly constituencies. The phase saw 60 percent of the 17.8 million electorate voting.
In the second phase, 63 per cent of 11.5 million voters turned out in 95 constituencies of central and north Gujarat regions.
(With IANS and PTI)
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