Phase 2 of Gujarat Assembly polls are on 14 December, when the voters in 93 constituencies will decide who their next Chief Minister will be. A total of 851 candidates from four national parties – Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – 12 regional parties and 344 Independent candidates will try their luck.
Of these 851 candidates, 82 candidates have criminal charges slapped against them. 25 of them belong to Congress party. BJP is a close second. They have 22 candidates with criminal charges against them. BSP comes third with 11 candidates. They are followed by NCP and AAP with 4 and 2 candidates respectively. 23 Independent candidates also have criminal charges against them.
Meanwhile, 198 candidates are ‘crorepati’ candidates, which means they have declared their assets worth more than Rs 1 crore. Congress leads the chart in this category with 67 candidates. BJP finishes second with 66 candidates. NCP, AAP and BSP follow suit with 10, 5 and 3 candidates respectively. 31 independent candidates also have declared assets more than worth Rs 1 crore.
These are, however, the details of just the candidates in phase 2 of Gujarat polls. Polling for first phase had already concluded on 9 December where the voters casted their votes on other 89 seats. The results for both the phases will be declared on 18 December along with Himachal Pradesh results.
Will the Congress party led by a newly appointed president Rahul Gandhi be able to make a comeback after 22 years?
Is there a massive upset on cards for BJP in PM Modi’s home turf? Or will the issues of ‘neech’ remarks and Congress leaders meeting Pakistani delegations raised by Modi in the last stages of poll campaign be enough for BJP to counter the anti-incumbency of 22 years?
Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
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