All set for voting in Rajasthan on Sunday

Around 40 million people are eligible to vote on Sunday to elect a new 200-seat Rajasthan legislative assembly.

Ballotting will take place in 199 constituencies. Polling has been postponed in Churu to December 13 following the death of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate.

In the outgoing house, Congress holds 102 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party 79.

The Congress and the BJP are contesting all the seats. The newly formed National Peoples Party (NPP) has candidates in 150 constituencies and the BSP is in the race in over 100 seats.

A total of 2,087 candidates are in the fray. There will be over 47,000 polling booths across the state. Votes will be counted December 8 — along with those of Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

The leading candidates are Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, BJP’s Vasundhara Raje, state Congress president Chandrabhan, Gujjar leader Prahlad Gunjal and Meena community leader Kirori Lal Meena.

BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, party president Rajnath Singh, senior leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitely, TV actress Smriti Irani and Bollywood actors Hema Malini and Shatrughan Sinha were the star campaigners.

For the Congress, party president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi, general secretary and election campaign committee chairman C.P. Joshi, union Minister Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot spearheaded the poll campaign.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also addressed an election rally in Jaipur.