Re-polling is underway at six booths in four Assembly constituencies of Gujarat and the turnout is “high”, an election official said today.
Following the Election Commission’s (EC) directive yesterday, the polling is being held at two booths each in Vadgam and Savli constituencies and one each in Viramgam and Daskroi constituencies. Polling is scheduled to come to an end at 5 pm.
Turnout at the six booths till noon was “high”, the official said, but did not elaborate on the number of voters exercising their franchise. The re-polling is going on at Chhaniyana-1 and 2 booths in Vadgam, booth number 27 in Viramgam, Nava Naroda in Daskroi and Nhara and Sankrada booths in Savli constituency.
Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani is contesting from the Vadgam seat. The EC had yesterday ordered the re-polling after the second phase of voting in the Gujarat Assembly polls, covering 93 seats of central and north Gujarat, on December 14. However, the poll panel did not specify the reason for the fresh polling at these six booths.
The EC had also directed that the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips be taken into consideration during tomorrow’s counting of votes at 10 booths in seven constituencies as the presiding officers of these booths had failed to wipe out the votes cast during the mock poll from the control units.
In the first phase on December 9, polling was held in 89 seats of Saurashtra, Kutch and south Gujarat. The counting of votes for all the 182 Assembly seats will be taken up tomorrow.