New Delhi, Oct 25 (Agencies): The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday announced the schedule of the much-awaited polls to the 182-seat Gujarat Assembly. Voting will be held in two phases; first on December 9 and second on December 14.
Results will be announced on December 18, Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti said.
"Model code of conduct comes into effect from now in Gujarat," he added.
Joti said that the candidates will have to open new bank accounts for election spending. The EC has fixed the ceiling of expenditure per candidate at Rs 28 lakh.
The EC will set up 50,128 polling booths in the state.
For security measures, CCTV will be installed at border check posts. The Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) will be deployed well in advance and will conduct route marches for building confidence among people.
Wednesday's announcement comes 13 days after voting date for Himachal Pradesh was declared earlier this month.
The term of the 182-member Gujarat Assembly gets over on January 23, 2017.
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 earlier alleged 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 AK 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 earlier 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.