Gujarat Polls 2012: 1,700 polling stations in Ahmedabad marked `critical`

Ahmedabad: As many as 1,700 polling stations in Ahmedabad district, which are going to polls on Monday, have been marked as "critical" by election officials.

Chief district electoral officer Vijay Nehra said today that, "there are 1,700 polling stations (out of 3,816) in 17 assembly constituencies here which are critical". Close to 15,000 police personnel including central paramilitary force, state police and home guards have been deployed to ensure free and fair polls while 20,000 election personnel will be on duty to ensure smooth functioning. "Webcasting will be undertaken at certain polling stations," Nehra said but refused to identify the stations where the exercise will be conducted. Of the 1,700 critical polling booths, 147 are in Nikol, 141 in Daskroi and 140 in Vejalpur assembly constituency. Dariapur and Jamalpur-Khadia assembly constituencies, with sizable population of minority community, have 135 and 133 critical polling stations respectively. Thakkarbapanagar and Maninagar assembly seats have the lowest number of critical polling stations at 47 and 54. The fate of 178 candidates, who are in the fray for the 17 seats in the district, will be decided by 37,04,520 voters. The highest number of voters are in Ghatlodia assembly constituency, one of the three assembly seats formed after delimitation. The fate of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and Congress candidate Shweta Bhatt, wife of suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt, will be decided by 2,27,982 voters in Maninagar. PTI