Over 4.51 crore voters eligible to exercise their franchise in Gujarat

More than 4.51 crore voters, including 10.06 lakh first-timers, are eligible to exercise their franchise across the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in Gujarat that goes to the polls on April 23, a top official said Wednesday. The figure, which saw a drop in third gender voters, was arrived at after revision of electoral rolls in the state.

Between September 1, 2018 and March 25, 2019, a total of 10.05 lakh voters were added to the existing list in the revision carried out in two phases, Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S Murali Krishna said. The total number of eligible voters in Gujarat now stood at 4,51,25,680 -- 2,34,28,119 crore males, 2,16,96,571 crore females and 990 from the third gender, he said while addressing a press conference here.

The revision of electoral rolls involved addition, deletion, updating of details and change in address. The number of third gender voters came down by 149 to 990 following the revision carried out between February 1, 2019 and March 25, 2019, Krishna said. "It appears mistakes in marking might have been removed during modification, which is why the number went down," he said. After the revision of electoral rolls, of the 26 Lok Sabha seats, Navsari has the highest number voters at 19.71 lakh, followed by Gandhinagar (19.45 lakh), Rajkot (18.83 lakh), Surendranagar (18.47 lakh), ands Bardoli (18.26 lakh).

The Bharuch parliamentary seat has the lowest number of voters at 15.64 lakh. Krishna said a total of 127 candidates have filed their nomination forms till April 2. The last date for filing nominations is April 4. He informed that Rs 3.37 crore in cash had been seized during operations carried out by the income tax department, flying squads and state surveillance teams after the model code of conduct came into effect on March 10. Of this, Rs 1.63 crore was seized in Ahmedabad, Rs 93 crore in Valsad and Rs 44.70 lakh in Surat, he said.

Of the total 56,925 registered weapons in the state, 51,677 were deposited with government authorities after declaration of the election schedule on March 10, he said. Also, 44,948 non-bailable warrants were issued and 1.90 lakh people detained under various CrPC sections since the model code of conduct came into force, Krishna said.

(With inputs from agencies.)