Gujarat polls: Congress will come to power with majority, says party leader Bharat Solanki

Botad (Gujarat) [India], December 5 (ANI): Congress leader Bharat Solanki on Monday claimed that the party has received massive support during the first phase of polling in Gujarat.
"Congress received massive support in Saurashtra and south Gujarat in phase 1," Bharat Solanki said.
"On the coming December 8, Congress will come to power with a majority," he asserted.
Polling for the second and final phase of the Gujarat Assembly Elections for 93 Assembly constituencies across 14 districts of north and central Gujarat began at 8 am amid tight security arrangements today.
As many as 833 candidates from 61 parties are in the fray in the second phase of the Gujarat elections whose fate will be decided by over 2.51 crore electorates.
The counting of votes will be done on December 8.
Notably, the voter turnout in the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly polls was recorded at 34.74 per cent till 1 pm. The lowest turnout was seen in Mahisagar (29.72 pc). Gandhinagar, where the top leaders of the BJP including PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel cast their votes, witnessed 36.49 per cent voting.
The Election Commission has established 26,409 polling booths and nearly 36,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used for the purpose. Around 29,000 presiding officers and over 84,000 polling officers have been deployed in 14 districts to facilitate the polls.
According to Gujarat's Chief Electoral Officer P Bharathi, of the total 26,409 polling stations, 93 are model polling booths, 93 are eco-friendly booths, another 93 are managed by Divyang and 14 are managed by youth. Webcasting will be done in 13,319 polling booths in the second phase.
"Total of 2,51,58,730 voters will vote, of which, 1,29,26,501 are men, 1,22,31,335 are women and 894 are from the third gender," Bharathi said.
The 93 poll-bound seats in the second phase are spread across Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Patan, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Aravali, Mahisagar, Panchmahal, Dahod, Vadodara, Anand, Kheda and Chhota Udaipur districts.
During the first phase of polling on December 1, Gujarat saw an overall turnout of 63.14 per cent. The voting began at 8 am in 89 constituencies spread across 19 districts of Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat regions. The first phase of voting for 89 seats in Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat ended on December 1, with an overall turnout of 63.31 per cent. (ANI)