Highest turnout in Gujarat tribal belt, rural beats urban

AHMEDABAD: It was dubbed a ‘Super Tuesday’ as the highest number of constituencies (116) went to polls in the country. And, a major chunk — 26 — of these Lok Sabha seats was in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat.
Around 63.68% of the 4.51 crore electorate voted on Tuesday, sealing the fate of 371 candidates. The turnout was marginally higher than in 2014 when 63.65% had exercised their franchise.
The tribal belt stretching from the east to south Gujarat saw the highest turnout with the Valsad (ST) seat clocking the highest 74.09% voting.The assembly segment of Dang, one of the most backward regions of the state, recorded a whopping 81% polling.
Compared to cities, the enthusiasm was visibly more in rural areas where people lined up at the polling booths, braving the scorching heat as mercury climbed to nearly 42 degrees Celsius.
Amreli seat, which is seeing a contest between Congress’s Paresh Dhanani, the leader of Opposition in the state assembly, and two-time BJP MP Naran Kachhadiya, recorded the least voting at 55.73%.
A galaxy of BJP leaders, including PM Modi, finance minister Arun Jaitley and BJP patriarch LK Advani and national BJP president Amit Shah, besides Congress’s Ahmed Patel were among those who exercised their franchise.
Talking to reporters after casting his vote in Ranip area of Ahmedabad, Modi said the voter ID is a much more potent weapon that improvised explosive device (IED). “The weapon of terror is IED and the weapon of democracy is voter ID. I believe the power of voter ID is much more than the power of IED,” he said.
Advani, however, chose to be a man of few words. “Hamari sarkar banegi (We will form the government),” he said at municipal school in Khanpur in Ahmedabad.
In Gandhinagar, where Amit Shah is contesting his maiden Lok Sabha election, the turnout was close to 65%, marginally more than the state average.
While voting was mostly peaceful, complaints of EVMs malfunctioning were received from some parts of the state. Dr S Murali Krishna, Gujarat’s chief electoral officer, said they had received 43 pollrelated complaints through media and WhatsApp.
Krishna said one bogus voter was caught in Manavadar by-election while a bogus polling agent caught in Porbandar was removed from the booth. The EC is also looking into the complaint of some people threatened by some goons in Junagadh and not allowed to vote. Two villages in Dang had announced boycott of polls, but only one village Davdahaat refrained from voting.