 "Bypolls: Voter turnout stands at 49% in Gujarat")
The bypolls for nine state assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat on Saturday saw a tentative total voter turnout of 49% till 6 pm. According to state election commission, the final voter turnout would be announced on Sunday.
Voter turnout in each of the assembly seats till 6 pm on Saturday were as: Deesa (59.7), Maninagar (33.5), Tankara (57.5), Khambaliya (49), Mangrol (57), Talaja (55.5), Anand (57), Matar (54.7) and Limkheda (64), respectively. The voter turnout for the Lok Sabha seat in Vadodara was 43.5%.
Around 45 candidates are contesting for the assembly seats and while 4 are contesting for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat including BJP candidate Ranjan Ben Bhatta.
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By-polls were necessitated post resignations by sitting BJP MLAs who won Lok Sabha election of 2014, including Modi, who also vacated Maninagar seat as sitting MLA.
As in the Lok Sabha elections in April, the bypolls also saw an incident of selfie being taken within 100 metres of polling booth by Congress candidate for Vadodara Lok Sabha seat Narendra Rawat.
Speaking to mediapersons after casting his vote, Rawat claimed that he deliberately took a selfie to send out a message to the Centre that PM Modi has breached the trust of Vadodara voters by vacating his seat. "I will accept whatever the election commission decides," Rawat added.
When asked, Anita Karwal, Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat said that video footage of Rawat clicking a selfie will be reviewed by the EC following which a decision would be taken on issuing a notice to the Congress candidate.
It needs to be mentioned here that earlier during the general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also clicked a selfie near a polling booth.