Gujarat polls: PM Modi urges people to enrich 'festival of democracy'

As the second phase of Gujarat Assembly polls commenced on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested people to vote in "recording numbers" and enrich the "festival of democracy."

"Today is Phase 2 of the Gujarat elections. I request all those voting today to vote in record numbers and enrich this festival of democracy," Prime Minister Modi tweeted early this morning.

After a slew of campaign rallies, Gujarat is casting its vote today in the second-phase of the assembly elections.

In the second and final phase of elections, 93 constituencies spread across 14 districts in north and central Gujarat will go to polls.

A total of 851 candidates are in the fray and over 2.22 lakh people will take part in the election to decide their fate.

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 93 candidates for this phase, while Congress has fielded only 91.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will also visit their constituencies to cast their votes.

The voter turnout in the first phase of the polls was 68 per cent.

Meanwhile, repolling will be held tomorrow in two booths of Jamjodhpur constituency, two booths in Una, one in Nijjar, and one in Umargam.

The results will be declared on December 18.

In the 2012 assembly polls, the BJP won 115 seats, while the Congress bagged 61.

-ANI