Voting for the second phase of Gujarat assembly elections began under tight security this morning.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi [Images] is among the 599 candidates who will be fighting for the 95 assembly seats in the second phase in North and Central Gujarat.

About 1,87,16,283 voters (95,66,234 males and 91,50,049 females) will decide the fate of 599 candidates including 31 women.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made by the Election Commission to ensure that free and fair voting takes place in the 11 districts of the state.

The Gujarat police along with 574 companies of para-military forces have been deployed in the constituencies.

The EC has for the first time in the Gujarat elections appointed micro observers on sensitive booths.

Around, 4,830 micro observers will monitor voting and give their reports to the election observers after the completion of polls in these booths.

The Election Commission has also decided to conduct video recording of the voting in all the booths of the state.

The EC has set up 20,545 voting booths for the 95 seats.

The regions where the second phase of elections are being held were among the worst-affected in the 2002 riots.

In the December 2002 assembly elections, the BJP had won 73 seats out of 95 seats in these two regions, while the Congress had won 21 seats and one had gone to an independent candidate.
 
Elections for 87 assembly seats were conducted on December 11 in the first phase.