Ahmedabad: Curtains came down on Tuesday on the
campaigning for the by-election to seven Gujarat Assembly
seats, where ruling BJP and Opposition Congress are locked in
a straight fight.
The polling for the seats, spread over Saurashtra and
North Gujarat, will he held on September 10, while the
counting is slated for September 14.
Around 12.5 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their
franchise at more than 1,590 booths.
The bypoll-bound segments are: Danta, Dehgam and Sami
in North Gujarat, Chotila, Jasdan, Dhoraji and Jasdan in
Saurashtra.
Of the seven vacant seats, six were held by Congress
and one by BJP. The bypolls have been necessitated due to the
resignation or death of the sitting MLAs.
Electioneering was a low-key affair as no central
leader of either BJP or Congress came for campaigning. Even
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, BJP's star campaigner in
the last Lok Sabha election, did not address any public
meeting or visit any constituency.
According to State Congress President Siddharth Patel,
local and state-level leaders were involved in campaigning.
"We have asked local leaders like MLAs and MPs to
manage the electoral affairs in the bypolls," Patel said.
In the BJP also, local and state-level leaders were
involved in the campaigning.
The ruling party has assigned each seat to a senior
Minister and a party functionary for supervision and booth
management.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, September 09, 2009, 00:07