PM Modi to vote in Ph-II Gujarat poll today

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 4

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will vote in the second and final phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections on Monday, with 93 segments going to the polls in 14 districts of north and central Gujarat.

As many as 833 candidates are in the fray in Gujarat tomorrow, with the BJP seeking to surpass the 2002 record of winning 127 of the 182 seats in the Assembly, and the Congress and AAP seeking to end the BJP's 27-year run in the state.

Ahead of the voting tomorrow, PM Modi spent time with his mother Heera Ben in Gandhinagar. The visuals of Modi having tea with his mother went viral.

Voting will be held in segments spanning districts that include Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Gandhinagar.

Among prominent candidates who will run are Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in Ghatlodia (Ahmedabad); Hardik Patel in Viramgam (Ahmedabad); Alpesh Thakor (Gandhinagar South) SC leader Jignesh Mevani (Vadgam in Banaskantha) and Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Sukhram Rathva (Jetpur in Chhota Udepur district).

Bypolls will also be held tomorrow for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha segment and six Assembly seats — Rampur Sadar and Khauatli in Uttar Pradesh, Padampur in Odisha, Sardarshahar in Rajasthan, Kurhani in Bihar and Bhanupratappur in Chhattisgarh.

Ahead of the Mainpuri bypoll, Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) president Shivpal Singh Yadav alleged that drones were being used to conduct surveillance on his home.

Mainpuri will see a direct contest between SP chief Akhilesh Singh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav and BJP’s Raghuraj Singh Shakya, once an aide of Shivpal Yadav.

In Rampur Sadar, SP’s Asim Raza, a confidant of 10-term MLA Azam Khan is fighting BJP’s Akash Saxena.

While the Mainpuri poll was necessitated by the demise of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, the sitting MP, the Rampur and Khatauli bypolls were necessitated by the convictions of sitting MLAs Azam Khan of the SP and Vikram Saini of the BJP, respectively. In Khatauli, the BJP has fielded Saini’s wife Rajkumari against RJD-SP candidate Madan Bhaiya.

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