- Thursday, March 06, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The western Indian state of Gujarat witnessed the second phase of its assembly election on Monday (5) with 93 out of its 182 seats going to the polls.
Prime minister Narendra Modi, Indian home minister Amit Shah, and the state’s chief minister, Bhupendra Patel, were among the day’s high-profile voters who cast their ballots earlier in the day. Later, Modi, who had served as the chief minister of Gujarat between 2001 and 2014 before becoming the prime minister, thanked India’s election commission for conducting the polls and urged the people to step out and vote.
Modi’s mother Heeraben, 100, also cast her vote.
The election this time has evolved into a three-cornered battle between Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been ruling the state for more than two decades at a stretch; the opposition Indian National Congress; and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has fast emerged as a key player in the state and aims to topple the saffron party from power.
Eighty-nine seats went to the polls in the first phase which has held on Thursday (1). The voter turnout was reported to be 63.14 per cent, less than that recorded in 2017. The results will be declared on Thursday (8) along with that of Himachal Pradesh, another BJP-ruled state that went to the polls on November 12.
Chief minister Patel also appealed to the people to cast their ballots. He himself is a candidate in the second phase, contesting from Ghatlodia constituency in Ahmedabad. The BJP and AAP were contesting in all 93 seats in the second phase, while the Congress was contesting in 90. The phase has 833 candidates in the fray with around 2.51 crore (25.1 million) voters eligible to cast their ballots.
Shah cast his vote during the day with his family members.
This election is being seen by political observers as a mid-term mandate for Modi, India’s popular prime minister.
