EC notifies phase-I polls, 87 seats up for grabs

48 seats in Saurashtra region, 35 in South Gujarat and four in Ahmedabad rural area will go to polls on Dec 13

The Election Commission on Saturday notified the first phase for elections to the Gujarat Assembly, which will be held for 87 constituencies on December 13.

With this, candidates can begin filing nominations for 48 seats in Saurashtra region, 35 in South Gujarat and four in Ahmedabad rural area. The last date for filing nomination papers is November 24.

Nominations for first phase will be scrutinised on November 26. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is November 28, EC said.

Congress and BJP are yet to announce their candidates. State Congress leaders have gone to Delhi to finalise names of candidates for the first phase, sources said.

The BJP, which had carried out a major exercise of screening the candidates, is also in the process of sending names to Delhi for final approval from the central leadership.

Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) of former chief minister Keshubhai Patel is also not ready with the list. It said it would come out with the list soon.

Separately, the state government said in a release that Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi will hold a review meeting on Sunday, November 18, with the electoral officials from north Gujarat region in Ahmedabad and with the electoral officials of five districts from Central Gujarat on November 19 at Godhra in Panchmahals district to review the preparedness for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

"The meeting is likely to discuss law and order situation, enforcement of Model Code of Conduct, deployment of security forces and electoral staff, vulnerable pockets, complaint monitoring system, implementation of district election monitoring plan, expenditure monitoring and other election-related issues minutely," the release said.

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