Gujarat polls: Cricketer Ravindra Jadeja casts vote in Jamnagar

JAMNAGAR (GUJARAT): Cricketer Ravindra Jadeja on Thursday cast his vote at a polling station in Jamnagar in the first phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections and appealed to people to vote in large numbers. His wife and BJP candidate Rivaba Jadeja voted in Rajkot earlier today.

"I appeal to the people to vote in large numbers," said Ravindra Jadeja. Notably, Ravindra Jadeja's wife Rivaba Jadeja is a BJP candidate from Jamnagar North while her father Anirudhsinh Jadeja and her sister Naina Jadeja had campaigned for Congress candidate. Earlier while speaking to media, Rivaba Jadeja said that the BJP will win by a good margin. BJP has fielded Rivaba from North Jamnagar seat.

"There is no difficulty. There can be people of different ideologies in the same family. I have trust in the people of Jamnagar, we will focus on overall development, and this time as well BJP will win with a good margin," said BJP's Rivaba Jadeja.

She also requested people to vote in large numbers while considering this festival of democracy as a part of the responsibility.

"Today is a very important day for us. The hard work of all BJP workers is going to pay off. I would request people to vote as much as possible. We have to consider this festival of democracy as a part of our responsibility and we should be aware for the country," she said.

The polling is underway in 89 constituencies spread across 19 districts of Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat. A total of 2,39,76,670 voters who will cast their votes by 5 pm today will decide the fate of 788 candidates who are in the fray for the first phase.

Out of the total number of electorates, 1,24,33,362 are males, 1,1,5,42,811 females and 497 are from the third gender. Over 4 lakh PWD voters are eligible to cast their votes. Nearly 9.8 lakh senior citizen voters (80+) and nearly 10,000 voters who are 100 and above are eligible to vote. According to the EC, there are 5,74,560 voters who are between 18 to 19 years of age while 4,945 voters are above 99 years of age.

There are 163 NRI voters, of which 125 are men and 38 are women. There are 14,382 voting centres, out of which 3,311 are in the urban areas and 11,071 in the rural areas.

Among prominent candidates, Gujarat Chief Minster Bhupendra Patel is contesting from Ghatlodia, AAP Chief Ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi from Khambhaliya, former Congress leader and BJP candidate Hardik Patel from Viramgam, former Congress leader and now BJP candidate Alpesh Thakor from Gandhinagar South.

AAP state president Gopal Italia is contesting from Katargam constituency, Gujarat Home Minister (State) Harsh Sanghavi from Majura, Rivaba Jadeja from Jamnagar North, former Gujarat minister Parshottam Solanki from Bhavnagar Rural, Kunwarji Bavaliya from Jasdan, Kantilal Amrutiya from Morbi and Jayesh Radadiya from Jetpur.

Former BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastav is contesting as an Independent from Vaghodia. The counting of votes will be done on December 8. Results of the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections will also be declared on the same day.