Vadodara: As polling progressed in the by-election to Gujarat’s Manjalpur Assembly constituency Thursday, voter turnout reached 6.06 per cent by 10 a.m., according to data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The bypoll, being held in Vadodara district, was necessitated by the death of veteran BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Yogesh Patel, whose passing left vacant one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s longstanding strongholds.
A total of 2,19,494 electors are eligible to vote, comprising 1,11,645 men, 1,07,847 women and two third-gender voters. The electoral roll also includes 1,634 Persons with Disabilities (PwD), 1,406 voters aged 85 years and above, and 12 centenarians.
Ahead of polling day, 107 voters, including 90 senior citizens, exercised their franchise through the home voting facility using ballot papers.
The contest has narrowed to a straight fight between the BJP and the Congress after the scrutiny process left only the two recognised party candidates in the fray.
The BJP has fielded Satish Patel, a former Vadodara Municipal Corporation councillor, former chairman of the civic body’s standing committee and former BJP Vadodara district president.
The Congress has nominated Bhikha Rabari, vice-president of the Gujarat Congress and a senior leader from Vadodara who previously served as a minister in the Madhavsinh Solanki government during the 1990s.
Election authorities have established 260 polling stations across 62 locations, with an average of 844 voters per booth. All polling stations have been equipped with basic facilities including ramps, drinking water, electricity and toilets.
Two polling stations are being managed entirely by women staff, two by Persons with Disabilities staff, while five have been designated as model polling stations.
The Election Commission has implemented several technology-driven measures for the bypoll. All 260 polling stations are under 100 per cent live webcasting and CCTV surveillance, while mobile deposit counters have been set up outside polling stations for voters to leave their mobile phones before entering.
Presiding Officers are updating polling percentages every two hours through the ECINET application, and no polling station has more than 1,200 registered voters to reduce congestion.
For polling operations, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Makarpura has been designated as the dispatch centre, receipt centre, strong room and counting centre.
Following first-level checking, election authorities have made available 519 Ballot Units, 502 Control Units and 498 VVPATs as reserve and operational stock.
To monitor expenditure and enforce the Model Code of Conduct, nine Flying Squads, three Static Surveillance Teams, two Video Surveillance Teams and one Anti-Defacement Team have been deployed.
Voters may establish their identity using the Elector Photo Identity Card or any one of the 12 alternative identity documents approved by the Election Commission, while registered Non-Resident Indian voters are required to produce their original passport.
Authorities have also arranged wheelchairs and volunteers at polling stations to facilitate voting by elderly and differently abled electors.
According to the district election administration, only one complaint has been received through the Election Commission’s C-Vigil platform since the election notification was issued, and it was resolved within the prescribed 100-minute timeframe.
The Manjalpur constituency recorded a 60.15 per cent voter turnout during the 2022 Gujarat Assembly election. Counting of votes for the bypoll is scheduled for August 3.
