Gujarat Assembly polls LATEST updates: Elections to be held on 9th, 14th Dec & counting on 18th Dec, says CEC AK Joti

New Delhi: Amid the row over the "delay" in declaring the Gujarat Assembly elections, the Election Commission has announced the schedule for a two-phase poll in the state on Wednesday. The term of the 182-member Gujarat assembly gets over on January 23 next year. Here are latest updates on Gujarat Assembly elections

• Polling for 1st and second phase on 9th & 14 th December respectively: EC
• People can lodge complaint via mobile app: EC
• 102 polling booths to have female staff: EC
• No candidate can spend more than Rs 28 lakh in the election: EC
• Every activity related with elections will be recorded on camera: EC
• VVPAT will be used in Gujarat polls: EC
• In total, 50,128 polling booths will be set up in Gujarat: EC
• Four crore, thirty lakh voters in Gujarat: EC
• Election Commission to announce dates for Gujarat Elections 2017 at 1 PM today

The Commission has been under attack from opposition parties for not having announced the dates for Gujarat Assembly elections along with Himachal Pradesh. The opposition has been alleging that by "delaying" the announcement of the Gujarat polls, the EC was giving time to the BJP government in the state and at the Centre to sidestep the provisions of the model code and offer sops to the electorate to swing votes in favour of the saffron party. After the EC did not announce the election schedule for Gujarat, the Congress had alleged it was done to enable Prime Minister Narendra Modi to play a "false Santa Claus" and announce freebies for voters before the model code of conduct kicked in. Chief Election Commissioner A K Joti had defended the decision of announcing Himachal Pradesh's poll schedule before that of Gujarat, saying that multiple factors including the weather, flood relief work and festivities were considered before taking a call on election dates. The CEC had said while the Gujarat and Himachal polls were announced together in 2012, their schedules were different. He also said the two states had no similarities in geography or weather patterns. (With inputs from agencies)