59 pc voter turnout till 5 pm in Gujarat

An estimated 59 per cent voter turnout was registered till 5 pm on Tuesday for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, where polling was by and large peaceful barring a few stray incidents, said officials.

Key political leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, party veteran L K Advani, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Congress leader Ahmed Patel and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani exercised their franchise at different places in the state.

According to the latest data released by the Election Commission (EC), 58.96 per cent of the total registered voters across Gujarat cast their ballots between 7 am and 5 am, a figure lower than 2014.

In the 2014 polls, the total voting percentage was 63.6 per cent in the home state of Modi.

Barring a few incidents, the polling remained largely peaceful, said the officials.

In Junagadh, two persons were arrested by the police for allegedly threatening voters in the Ambedkarnagar area of the city, said the officials, who swung into action after a video of the incident went viral on social media.

"Based on a complaint given by local Congress leaders, the police rushed to the spot and arrested two persons who can be seen in the video," said Junagadh collector Sourabh Pardhi.

In Dahod, a mob of around 20 people barged into a polling booth at Zalod and allegedly beat up two persons who were deployed there for election duty, said the police, adding no one has been arrested yet in the case.

In another incident, workers of the Congress and the BJP engaged in a brawl at Dhanikhunt polling booth in Fatehpura taluka of Dahod district, said the police.

After casting his vote, Shah, the BJP candidate from Gandhinagar, urged people to come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise during the "festival of democracy".

According to Gujarat's Additional Chief Electoral Officer Ashok Manek, some EVM machines were replaced after they experienced technical problems during polling.

"Some EVM machines malfunctioned in some parts of the state. We quickly replaced them. Voting was not affected by this," said Manek.

A detailed report about such EVMs will be released after the voting gets over in the evening, he said.