As per poll officials, a total of 4.97 crore persons, comprising 2.56 crore males, 2.41 crore females and 1,534 from the third gender, will vote in 50,788 polling booths. These comprise 17,275 polling booths in urban areas and 33,513 in rural areas, EC data showed.
The BJP is set to vote in 25 of Gujarat s 26 Lok Sabha constituencies on Tuesday, with the party having already won unopposed in Surat. The party had previously targeted a winning margin of half a million votes in all seats, having done so twice in 2014 and 2019. However, as the campaign settles for the third phase, concerns have arisen within the party. The campaign has focused largely on national narratives, Ram Mandir, and the Hindutva agenda, but local issues have created more resonance in the state than larger appeal.
At the centre of the storm is the Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala, who made a controversial remark on the Kshatriya community. At an event held in March, a member of the Rajya Sabha Rupala stated that the kings had bowed in front of the British and married off their daughters to the British while they were trying to oppress India.
The community flagged off dharma raths, which will traverse all the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state and appeal to people to vote for Congress, the organisers said.