Special Edition: Who Will the Wild, Wild West Choose?

With the first week of December 2022 being crucial for 182 odd constituencies of Gujarat’s Vidhan Sabha, get yourself updated on the whos-who before the results are declared on the 8th of December!

If “Aa Gujarat Main Banavyu Che” and “Hath mein Jhadu lilu lilu, AAP-Muslim ilu ilu” have been the sounds outside your home and on the news then this edition is specially curated for you.

With almost 25% of the voters in the state under the age of 30, it will be interesting to see who Gujarat’s young choose to represent them.

Here’s a breakdown of the contenders for this knockdown -
Choose your Fighters in 3, 2, 1, GO!

On the Electorates:
Biggest issue for the youth? 

With a total of 4.9 Crore voters, of which 4 Lakh are Persons with Disabilities (PwD) and 9.8 lakh are senior citizen voters, elections this time around are also a milestone for young voters. Over 4.77 lakh young people will vote for the first time in these elections, and to inspire and motivate first time voters, over 33 polling centres are being managed by young polling parties. Here’s more on this. 

These elections are being conducted in two phases — 19 districts and 89 constituencies have already casted their vote on 1st December, the others are voting right now. Voter turnout has reached a high percentage of 50.51%, with Sabarkatha district leading at 57.23% turnout, as we type this out! Here’s our source.

In Kutch, the largest district of India, average rates of polling on an average is 54.52% – lowest in the block of Gandhidham and highest in Abdasa - of 39.89% and 62%!

On the Candidates:

With a high number of incumbent candidates contesting, here’s a look at the prominent people. While the Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is contesting from Ghatlodia, the AAP Chief Ministerial Candidate - Isudan Gadhvi is trying his luck from Khambhaliya.

The two prominent “youth” leaders and former congress and current BJP members Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor are running from Viramgam and Gandhinagar South respectively. 

Overall, the average age of a candidate is 51 years –so much for youth representation. Another disappointing fact is the skewed sex-ratio breakdown of the candidates. BJP takes the lead with only 8.8% of its projected candidates being women.

What happens on the 8th for the long-standing state incumbent BJP?