Gujarat Lok Sabha elections 2019 HIGHLIGHTS: Amit Shah is the BJP nominee from Gandhinagar, a Lok Sabha constituency earlier represented by Advani. Voting began at 7 am on Tuesday as 116 constituencies across 15 states go to polls in the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha elections. Voting is underway in all constituencies in Gujarat, Goa, and Kerala, with BJP president Amit Shah, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and several Union ministers among prominent candidates in the fray.
The BJP faces a strong challenge in Uttar Pradesh, as the third phase of Lok Sabha elections will be fought in the “Yadav belt”, and Chhattisgarh, where the Congress swept to victory in the assembly elections just four months ago, winning 68 of 90 seats, reducing BJP to just 15.
Kerala Lok Sabha elections 2019
In Kerala, the contest is primarily between the CPM-led Left Democratic Front, Congress-led United Democratic Front and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
In Karnataka, the BJP seems to have their noses ahead in many of the 14 seats going to the polls even though it faces a tough challenge from the Congress-JD-S combine. With the completion of the third phase, the election process will be completed in southern states.
The total voter turnout in Gujarat for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections stood at 60.21 per cent.
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51.08 % turnout recorded in Kutch Parliamentary constituency till 5 pm.
Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala casts his vote at a polling station in Rajkot city on Tuesday. Vala is a native of Rajkot and was elected MLA from the city for 7 times before the Narendra Modi government appointed him Karnataka governor in 2014. (Photo by Ashwin Sadhu)
Bardoli records the highest 68.9 per cent voter turnout till 5 pm; Amreli records the lowest at 51.48 per cent.
The voter turnout in Gujarat till 5 pm was 57.69 per cent.
54.14 % turnout recorded in Jamnagar Parliamentary constituency till 5 pm.
The voter turnout in Rajkot Lok Sabha seat till 5 pm was 57 per cent.
Representatives of about 314 villages in Narmada District are sitting in protest at the District collector office, boycotting polls. They are demanding a separate gram panchayat in their villages. Although voting is on in the villages, the turn out is expected to be less due to the protest. Narmada district falls under two parliamentary constituencies-- Bharuch and Chhota Udepur.
Election officials have been advising the representatives to finish voting first.
200 voters from Chapargota village in Bodeli also boycotted the polls over administration inaction towards their complaint of corruption in development works.
Till 5 pm, voter turnout in Anand stands at 53.88 per cent and in Kheda at 56.56 per cent.
Polling booth set up for one man in Gujarat
Vadodara Congress complains to Election Commission after BJP candidate Ranjan Bhatt visits polling stations with other BJP leaders who are not authorised to be present at polling booths.
Chhitu Vasava (60), a tribal and farmer by profession, died due to heart-attack after casting his vote on Tuesday afternoon. Vasava, a resident of Ochan village in Vaghra taluka of Bharuch district, left his house in the morning to cast vote at the government primary school in Ochan village. He had to stand for a longer time in queue for his turn to cast vote. After casting his vote, Vasava left for home and sat outside a temple just 200 meters far from the polling station. According to Police, he had incurred severe chest pain and was found lying on the steps of the temple
Some people took him to the government hospital and informed his family members. Vaghra police sub-inspector j K Danger said, "The hospital doctor declared him brought dead. The cause of death is heart-attack."
Till 4 pm, the voter turn out in Gujarat stood at 50.32 per cent, PIB reported. Bardoli is leading with 58 per cent voter turnout.
Gujarat cabinet minister Ishwar Patel with his family exercised voting at Ankleshwar taluka in Bharuch district.
Vashram Sarvaiya, one of the seven Dalits of Una who were allegedly assaulted by gaurakshaks in Mota Samadhiyala village of Gir Somnath in 2016, cast his vote on Tuesday. Vashram and his family are on a hunger strike since March 11.
Nearly 50.32 per cent of the total 4.51 crore voters exercised their franchise till 3 pm in Gujarat where polling was underway in all 26 Lok Sabha seat of the state, PTI reported.
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel casts his vote in Gujarat on Tuesday.
Naran Kachhadiya, the sitting BJP MP from Amreli Lok Sabha seat and his challenger Paresh Dhanani of Congress share a light moment while visiting a polling booth in Amreli Parliamentary seat.
49.58 per cent polling recorded in Rajkot Parliamentary seat till 3 pm. Tankara Assembly seat, the home stretch of Congress candidate Lalit Kagathara is leading all the seven Assembly segments in Rajkot Parliamentary constituency with around 54 per cent voter turnout.
Dilip Sanghani, former Gujarat minister and vice chairman of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited, and his wife Geetabehn after casting their votes in Jalila village of Amreli district.
The voter turnout for the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat till 3 pm was 39.89 per cent. The overall voter percentage stood at 40.17 per cent.
Gujarat clocks 24.87% polling till 11 am. Highest turn out in Banaskantha 29.73%, while lowest n Ahmedabad-East constituency 19.12%. EVM malfunctioning also recorded in different parts of the state. MCC complaints have been received from Surat, Dahod, Bhavnagar, Ahmedabad, Patan, Gandhinagar, Rajkot & Porbandar in Gujarat.
Reshma Patel (center, front row), the Patidar quota agitation leader with her family after casting her vote in Zanzarda area of Junagadh city. Reshma is contesting Porbandar Lok Sabha seat as an Independent and bypoll to Manavadar Assembly seat as NCP nominee.
Express Photo by Gopal Kateshya
Rajkot Lok Sabha constituency records 10.39% polling till 9 am. Tankara, the home constituency of Congress candidate Lalit Kagathara is leading all the 7 Assembly segments in Rajkot LS with 14.44 % polling in first 2 hours of polling
BJP's Devusinh Chauhan casts his vote from Kheda. He is the sitting MP from Kheda. Chauhan had won the Constituency in 2014, defeating six-term sitting MP Dinsha Patel of the Congress. Chauhan is now contesting against Bimal Shah of the Congress who is a former BJP leader. Kheda Constituency has been a Congress bastion since 1977. Vote turnout in Kheda recorded at 9.78 % since morning. Express Photo by Ashwin Sadhu
Vote turnout in Gujarat so far:
Amreli- 10.26%
Vadodara-9.51%
Kheda district- 9.78%
Rajkot- 10.22%
Amreli Lok Sabha constituency recorded 10.36 % polling in the first two hours.
BJP national president Amit Shah is contesting from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency for the first time He concluded his campaigning after holding a roadshow in Sanand town recently on Sunday. A total of 17 candidates are in the fray for Gandhinagar constituency. The Congress has fielded its two-time sitting MLA and former deputy collector C J Chavda to take on Shah.
Among the 17 contestants are Valjibhai Rathod from Thangadh of Surendranagar district and Firoz Pathan, a resident of Juhapura. Rathod is the father of one of the three youths who was killed in police firing in Thangadh in 2011. Whereas, Pathan is a close relative of some of the 69 persons who were killed in the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre case. Both are fighting the election to voice their sense of injustice.
In Gujarat, this is an election of the sort the state hasn’t seen since Narendra Modi first burst onto the scene in 2001. For the first time since then, he isn’t a candidate on the ballot paper in the state. While the BJP, which won all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014, is still seeking votes in the Prime Minister’s name, for the first time in a long time, Modi isn’t top of the mind for most of the state electorate either. Read More
BJP Chief Amit Shah waves crowd at Ranip in Ahmedabad. (Express Photo by Javed Raja)
After casting his vote from Ahmedabad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he feels blessed to have cast his vote from home state. " Like you feel pure after a holy dip in Kumbh, one feels pure after casting vote in this festival of democracy," he said.
"The weapon of terrorism is IED, the strength of democracy is voter ID. I can say with surety that the voter ID is much much more powerful than an IED, so we should understand the strength of our voter IDs," he added.
Express Photo by Javed Raja