Bypolls today,security stepped up

Security has been tightened across the state in view of seven Assembly bypolls on Thursday.

More than 12 lakh voters will exercise their right at 1,590 voting booths to elect MLAs from the total 88 candidates who are in fray in the seven Assembly segments of Danta,Dehgam,Sami,Dhoraji,Chotila,Jasdan and Kidinar.

According to Election Commission officials,84 male and four female candidates are in the fray and more than 8,000 security personnel have been deployed to ensure that the voting is conducted in a peaceful manner.

Special security arrangements have been made in sensitive voting booths and video recording will be done at all such booths,officials said.

Of these seven assembly seats,BJP held only one seat Kodinar,while the other six were held by the Congress.

Except Chotila and Sami,by-elections in other five seats were necessitated as the sitting MLAs got elected to the Lok Sabha.

However,Popat Jinjaria,MLA from Chotila,died a few months ago,while Bhavsinh Rathod,a sitting Congress MLA,resigned from the party and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls. Results for the by-elections will be declared on September 14.

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The by-elections are also being held in the backdrop of BJP’s trouble over the Gujarat High Court lifting the state government’s ban on Jaswant Singh’s book on Muhammad Ali Jinnah and a metropolitan court probe saying the controversial Ishrat Jahan encounter was fake and executed in “cold blood” by the police.

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