E-Paper
Gujarat Assembly polls 2022: Nomination, voting, and result. Complete schedule
Gujarat has a 182 member assembly and the BJP had pulled off its sixth consecutive victory winning 99 seats in the last polls, while the Congress put up a spirited fight by bagging 77 seats.
Polling for Gujarat Assembly elections will be held in two phases on December 1 and December 5 and the counting of votes will coincide with that of Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday. Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar told a press conference that the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections will be held for 89 constituencies and the second phase for 93 constituencies.
A total of 3,24,422 new voters will be able to exercise their voting rights for the first in the Gujarat Assembly elections.
"I am happy to inform that 3,24,422 new voters will vote for the first time this time in the Gujarat Assembly elections. The total number of polling stations is 51,782. At least 50 per cent of the polling stations set up in the state will have webcasting arrangements," Kumar said.
"For a better voting experience, 1274 polling stations will be managed entirely by women and security staff. Public Works Department will welcome voters at 182 polling stations. For the first time, 33 polling stations will be set up and managed by the youngest polling staff," he added.
| Poll events | First phase | Second phase |
|---|---|---|
| Date of Issue of Gazette Notification | November 5 | November 10 |
| Last Date of filing Nominations | November 14 | November 17 |
| Date for Scrutiny of Nominations | November 15 | November 18 |
| Last Date for Withdrawal of Candidatures | November 17 | November 21 |
| Date of Poll | December 1 | December 8 |
| Date of Counting | December 8 | December 8 |
| Date before which election shall be completed | December 10 | December 10 |
The poll panel had already announced the schedule for Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections but cited the precedent from 2017 to delay the announcement for Gujarat elections. Kumar countered the allegations of delaying polling dates due to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Gujarat, saying the Morbi bridge collapse incident was one of the reasons to delay the announcement.
"Recently a very tragic incident occurred there – one of the reasons why we delayed. Also, there was state mourning in the state yesterday; so multiple factors," he said.
