Gujarat CEO gets 43 poll-related complaints

While voting was largely peaceful in the state, complaints of model code of conduct violations, procedural glitches and even voters protesting by boycotting voting flowed into the office of the state’s chief electoral officer in Gandhinagar. A total of 43 complaints were registered, with most concerning instances covered by the electronic media, WhatsApp messages and letters by rival parties. The highest number of complaints (11) was in Ahmedabad, with five complaints each from Junagadh, Anand and Amreli, and each from Dahod, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar.


Three instances of voting being boycotted were registered with the commission. At Jamjodhpur, voters calling for the boycott had a dispute over crop insurance payouts. At Juni Kuilivel and Budhvada in Mandvi taluka, citizens wanted to boycott the polls over their demand for new roads.

In Dang district, villagers of Davdahad boycotted voting stating that their demand for a bridge across the Khapri river was not fulfilled. Chief electoral officer S Murali Krishna told newspersons that while the Dang voters were not convinced, voters at Mandvi and Jamjodhpur were eventually convinced to vote.

In Surendranagar, the district Congress president complained that residents of Kondh village in

Dhrangadhra

were being intimidated by an unidentified person. A notice was issued to the presiding officer and a detailed inquiry has been ordered. The EC also registered at least five instances of minor procedural glitches during the mock polling rounds at certain booths in Amrapur in Patan, Visnagar in Mehsana, Khambala in Navsari, Vadiya Pada Sarigam and Bariyawad Umargam in Valsad and Jamalpur-Khadia in Ahmedabad, where polling officers had “forgotten to clear mock poll data from EVMs” or had “forgotten to remove mock poll data slips” and allowed live voting to follow. Voting had to be halted briefly.