Gandhinagar/Shimla: All eyes are set on Gujarat and Himachal as the much-awaited results of the bitterly fought Assembly polls, which saw a political Mahabharat contest between the two leading parties - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, will be announced today.
The counting for the Assembly elections in both the states will begin at 8 a.m. and results are expected to come out by afternoon.
Gujarat:
Gujarat has 26 parliamentary constituencies and 182 assembly constituencies.
A total of 977 candidates were in the fray in the first phase of elections, out of which 57 were women candidates and over 2.22 lakh people took part in the election to decide their fate. While in the second phase, 851 candidates fought, out of which 69 women candidates contested.
The voting in first phase of the Gujarat polls took place on 24,689 polling stations, while in the second phase, a total number of 25,558 polling stations were used.
In 2012, the BJP won 63 of the 89 constituencies, while the Congress party got only 22 seats. Others won four seats. Narendra Modi led BJP to a vigorous victory in Gujarat, which also concreted his name for the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate in the 2014 General Elections.
The BJP won 115 seats, while the Congress bagged 61 in 2012.
The Congress' average victory margin stood at 13,577 votes across the 61 seats it won in 2012. Since 1995, the BJP has been in the power in Gujarat.
The incumbent state Chief Minister Vijay Rupani-led BJP is seeking a sixth straight term in office, while the Congress is aspiring to stage a comeback in power after being in the opposition for over two decades.
Himchal Pradesh:
As many as 50,25,941 voters were eligible to cast their votes and 37,605 polling personnel were deployed at 7,525 polling booths. 983 polling stations had been declared vulnerable and 399 as critical to ensure free and fair elections in the state.
Congress leader and six-time Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is fighting against former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to be the next head of the state.
A total of 337 candidates, including 19 women, are in fray to sweep the polls in the hilly state.
Virbhadra Singh and Dhumal were among the 62 sitting MLAs who contested the polls.
Polling for 68 seats of Himachal Pradesh, which was held on November 9 in a single phase to choose the next chief minister, recorded 74.61 per cent voter turnout, the highest-ever in the state.
However, the exit polls had suggested a change of political guard in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.
The Congress party is currently in power in the state and the BJP is aiming to return to power after a gap of five years.
In 2012, the Congress party defeated the BJP and won an outright majority by winning 36 of the 68 seats under the leadership of Virbhadra Singh thus proving most of the pollsters and exit polls wrong, which had predicted a photo-finish.
