Ahmedabad, April 30 (IANS) Gujarat Wednesday recorded 62 percent voting for all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state that went to the polls in single-day election, according to official figures.
The Narmada Lok Sabha seat created a record with 78 percent voter turnout, followed by Vadodara at 70 percent.
Vadodara is the constituency from where Chief Minister Narendra Modi, also the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, is contesting.
Compared to 2009, the voter turnout was 14 percent higher with a majority of the seats reporting voting percentage of more than 50 percent.
A total 334 candidates, including 67 Muslims — one from the Congress, seven from the Samajwadi Party and the rest nominated by regional parties or contesting as independents — contested the polls.
An electorate of about 4.05 crore was eligible to exercise its franchise at 45,380 polling stations across the state.
Among the prominent candidates were senior BJP leader L.K. Advani from Gandhinagar and Bollywood actor and the party’s Ahmedabad East candidate Paresh Rawal.
From the Congress, the big names are Madhusudan Mistry (Vadodara), Shankarsinh Vaghela (Sabarkantha), Dinshaw Patel (Kheda), Bharat M. Solanki (Anand) and Tushar A. Chaudhary (Bardoli).
