Filing of nominations for next month's Gujarat assembly polls begins

The process to file nominations for the first phase of two-phase Assembly polls in Gujarat began on Monday with an Independent candidate submitting his papers to authorities in Amreli district, an official release said. One Kishorbhai Bagda submitted his nomination papers as an Independent candidate to election authorities for the Savarkundala seat in the Amreli district, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat said in a release.

On November 3, the Election Commission announced the schedule for the two-phase Assembly polls for a total of 182 seats in Gujarat. While 89 seats will go to polls on December 1, 92 constituencies will vote on December 5. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.

A gazette notification inviting nominations for the first phase was issued on November 5 and the last date to file papers is November 14.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in the process of finalising its candidates, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress have already declared their candidates for 130 and 43 seats, respectively.