Voting ends for second phase of Gujarat polls

Voting for the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections 2017 has ended on Thursday with voter turnout climbing to 62.24 per cent till 5 p.m.

The day saw a lot of strong reaction from the opposition party after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who cast his vote in Sabarmati, walked among a crowd of supporters who chanted "Modi, Modi", which the Congress alleged was the same as holding a roadshow.

Reacting to the "roadshow" the Congress workers earlier in the day marched towards Election Commission in protest over it near Patel Chowk here.

Hitting back, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary in-charge for Gujarat, Bhupendra Yadav said that the grand old party always tries to pull strings and now that it is about to face a defeat.

Speaking at a press conference here, the BJP leader said, "During the last Rajya Sabha elections when the Election Commission gave the verdict, we accepted it. Congress then hailed the same EC for being impartial. Now that the Congress is about to face a terrible defeat, they are putting allegations of all kinds on the Election Commission. When Congress comes in power, it always tries to keep others as puppets. I would say, for whom grapes are sour, now they are blaming the constitutional bodies".

The second phase of elections is conducted in 93 constituencies spread across 14 districts in north and central Gujarat.

A total of 851 candidates are in the fray and over 2.22 lakh people will take part in the election to decide their fate.

The BJP has fielded 93 candidates for this phase, while Congress has fielded only 91.

The voter turnout in the first phase of the polls was 68 per cent.

The results will be declared on December 18.

In the 2012 assembly polls, the BJP won 115 seats, while the Congress bagged 61.