Gujarat Assembly election 2017: Top 10 expectations of voters

Better public transport, employment opportunities and women empowerment are some of the key issues of the voters

The campaigning for both phases of the Gujarat Assembly election 2017 have ended. While voting for the first phase took place on December 9, on 89 seats. The remaining 93 of the total 182 Gujarat Assembly seats go to the polls on December 14. The final result of both phases will be announced after counting of votes on December 18.

The high-pitched rallies for the second phase ended on Tuesday, capped by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sea-plane flight and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's press address in the evening. 

Pre-election campaigns are always seen as political parties' drive to infuse into voters a trust for themselves and their policies. On their part, when voters go and cast their votes to a certain party or candidate, they certainly have some expectations from the party or candidate. 

A lot was said during campaigning by tall political leaders like Prime Minister Modi his party colleague Amit Shah, Congress' Rahul Gandhi, Patidar leader Hardik Patel, and new leaders like Jignesh Mevani and Alpesh Thakore, among others.

The Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) recently came out with a survey highlighting the voters' top expectations in the Gujarat Assembly election 2017.

According to the ADR, the key issues of Gujarat citizens include better public transport, employment opportunities and women empowerment. 

Here are the top 10 expectations of Gujarat voters 

ISSUES	Expectations of addressing (as perceived by voters on a scale of 1-10)
Better employment opportunities	8.72
Better public transport	7.65
Empowerment of Women	7.6
Security for women	7.41
Trustworthiness of MP	7.34
Environmental issues	6.77
Better electric supply	6.71
Better roads	6.64
Drinking water	6.61
Better Law and Order / Policing	6.61

Rural and urban voters seem to differ in their expectations. While the rural people mostly desire higher price realisation for agricultural produce, better public transport and employment opportunities, the least welcome response from them comes for issues like environmental concerns, electricity for agriculture and irrigation programmes.

The more crucial issues for the urban voters, on the other hand, are better employment opportunities, the facility for pedestrians and cyclists on roads and the empowerment of women. The other issues include better law and order, training for jobs, security for women and traffic decongestion. 

A total of 1,815 candidates are contesting the Gujarat poll, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ruled for more than 2 decades, uninterruptedly.