Gandhinagar: As the first phase of the Gujarat assembly election became underway on Saturday morning, the security has been beefed up to maintain law and order across the state.

Over 1,74,000 police personnel have been deployed with security apparatus on highest alert to ensure smooth conduct of the voting process today.

The Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and State Armed Police (SAP) drawn from other states have also been deployed to supplement the local police force, according to Election Commission statement.

CCTV cameras have also been installed for effective monitoring and surveillance.

The cameras have also been installed inside critical polling booths in vulnerable areas to closely monitor the proceedings without violating secrecy of voting process.

In the wake of EVM tampering allegation from various political parties, the EC has also put in place administrative safeguards and security protocols to prevent any misuse of EVM and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.

In order to provide voter verifiability and auditability of every vote cast through the EVM, the Commission has deployed VVPAT machines in over 24,600 polling booths in this phase.

A mock poll by casting 50 votes will also be conducted at every polling booth by the Presiding Officer, one hour before the commencement of actual polling.

The first phase of polls will be held in 89 seats of Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat with over two crore voters deciding the fate 977 candidates.

The second phase will be held on December 14 while counting of the votes will be done on December 18.

Prominent candidates for today’s battle include Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who is contesting from Rajkot (West), and Congress’ Shaktisinh Gohil (Mandvi) and Paresh Dhanani (Amreli).

The election is viewed as a prestige battle for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a litmus test for the leadership of soon-to-be Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

The campaign shaped up as a duel between Modi and Gandhi, and often turned personal.

The poll narrative kept changing with issues such as the Ayodhya title suit, Gandhi’s imminent elevation as Congress president and his visits to temples being raised by BJP leaders.

Gandhi emerged as the Congress’ pivot to take on the might of the prime minister on his home turf.

While Modi addressed about 15 rallies, Gandhi spent more than seven days in Saurashtra and south Gujarat, addressing a number of meetings