Dec 16, 2007, 12:49 GMT
Ahmedabad, Dec 16 (IANS) Polling for the crucial second and final round of the 182-member Gujarat assembly elections ended Sunday evening.
The second phase included 95 assembly constituencies in central and northern Gujarat with 599 candidates including Chief Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
As the polling began in the morning, people were coming out slowly on a windy Sunday but the voting picked up as the day progressed.
Although official statistics were yet to be made available, observers estimated the voter turnout to be between 50 percent and 55 percent.
A total of 18.7 million people were eligible to vote Sunday.
While the BJP is confident of winning in north and central Gujarat that include urban centres like Ahmedabad and Vadodara, the Congress is hopeful of regaining the strongholds it lost to Modi in the last elections of December 2002.
Leaders contesting in the second phase include Modi and 11 members of his cabinet including Anandiben Patel, Ashok Bhatt, Kaushik Patel, Anil Patel, Bharat Barot and Dilip Thakore.
For the Congress, union minister Dinsha Patel, former deputy chief minister Narhari Amin and veteran leader C.J. Chavda were in the fray.
While the first round of polling was held Tuesday, the vote count will take place Dec 23.
© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service
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