Gujarat Election Results: Top contenders to be on watch during counting of votes

Exit polls have predicted a thumping majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat and if the projections are any indication, the saffron party is set to retain power for a seventh time in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Is. Continuous tenure and equal feat of Left Front in West Bengal. The CPI(M)-led front ruled the eastern state for 34 years from 1977 to 2011.

Read also: Next CM of Gujarat: Will Bhupendra Patel get another term or BJP will suffer a big blow

The BJP, which won 99 seats in the 2017 elections, is projected to win between 117-151 seats in the 182 houses and the Congress between 16 and 51. He is also buoyed by the prospect of AAP eating into Congress votes, which could be additionally beneficial for the saffron party.

Read also: Gujarat Election Result 2022 Winners List

The outcome of the election will decide whether the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gets a chance to establish itself as a pan-national party and challenge the BJP at the national level as well.

The AAP, which is in power in Delhi and Punjab and launched an aggressive campaign to create a triangular contest for the first time in Gujarat, was projected to bag anything between 2 and 13 seats. The majority mark is 92.

Gujarat Election Result 2022 Live Updates

Among the total 1,621 candidates, the fate of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi, youth leaders Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani and Alpesh Thakor will be decided on Thursday.

Here’s a list of the top contenders to watch:

Hardik Patel from Viramgam: All eyes are once again on Gujarat’s small, influential Patidar or Patel community, which edged out the ruling BJP in the 2017 assembly elections, which took place to secure the Hardik Patel-led quota agitation. OBC status for the community. Patel has contested as a BJP candidate and is pitted against Congress candidates Lakhabhai Bharwad and AAP’s Amarsinh Thakor.

Bhupendra Patel from Ghatlodia: The chief minister, who replaced Vijay Rupani last year, contested from the Ghatlodia constituency. He is contesting from Congress against Ami Yagnik. Patidar-dominated Ghatlodia, which is part of the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, has given Gujarat two chief ministers – Bhupendra Patel and Anandiben Patel – and is a BJP bastion. Despite the Patidar quota agitation in 2017, Patel won the seat with a huge margin of 1.17 lakh votes. The BJP has already announced that Patel will be given the top post again after this election. Ghatlodiya, which has about 3.70 lakh voters, became a new assembly constituency after the delimitation exercise carried out in 2012. Earlier, it was a part of Sarkhej constituency. In 2012, Anandiben Patel, the then chief minister of Gujarat, won the seat with a margin of over 1.1 lakh.

Khambhalia to Isudan Gadhvi: AAP’s CM candidate Isudan Gadhvi has been fielded from Khambhalia seat of Devbhoomi Dwarka. As exit polls have not predicted more than 20 seats for AAP, Kejriwal has said that the party will win more than 100 seats. Gadhvi was a TV journalist and editor of VTV News. Isudan Gadhvi has also worked in VTV Gujarati as anchor of its popular news show Mahamanthan.

Katargam to Gopal Italia: Contesting from the Katargam constituency is AAP state president Gopal Italia, who is considered an influential Patidar leader from the constituency. He played an important role in the Patidar reservation movement in 2015. He will be pitted against Prajapati community (OBC) candidate Kaplesh Waria of Congress and BJP candidate Vinodbhai Amrishbhai Moradiya.

Jignesh Mevani from Vadgam: Jignesh Mevani, who is contesting from Vadgam for the second time, is contesting on a Congress ticket this time. He was elected as an Independent MLA from the same seat in 2017 with the support of the Congress. He had said that the Congress would win 120 assembly seats and lay the foundation for the reconstruction of Gujarat.

Rivaba Jadeja from Jamnagar North: BJP candidate from North Jamnagar, Rivaba Jadeja is the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja. Notably, his sister-in-law Naynaba Jadeja belongs to the Congress party. Rivaba’s father-in-law was also seen participating in Nayanaba’s campaigns. He said, “There is no difficulty. There can be people of different ideologies in the same family. I have faith in the people of Jamnagar, we will focus on overall development and this time also BJP will win with a good margin.”

Dwarka to Pabubha Manek: The Dwarka Assembly seat should be considered as the safest bet for the BJP in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly Elections. The reason is Pabubha Manek, an MLA who has not lost a single election in the last 32 years. BJP has entrusted Manek with the task of winning the seat for the party for the third time. Manek, who has never lost an election since 1990, won the first three elections as an independent (1990, 95, 98), then joined the Congress and won the seat in 2002. Later, he won the 2007, 2012 and 2012 assembly elections. On BJP ticket in 2017.

Morbi to Kantilal Amritiya: The BJP has fielded Kantilal Amritiya, who replaced sitting MLA and cabinet minister Brijesh Merja, and he is up against Jayantilal Jerjbhai Patel of the Congress and Pankaj Ransaria of the AAP. Morbi, which recently became a topic of discussion after a tragic incident in which a suspension bridge collapsed into the river, costing over 130 lives. Opposition parties raised the issue of “mismanagement” in the Morbi incident during the campaign, trying to corner the government over the incident. However, historically, the BJP had won the Morbi assembly seat in 1995, 1998, 2002, 2007 and 2012, before losing it to Amritiya Merja, who was in the Congress, in 2017. Merja later joined the BJP and again won the bypolls from Morbi. In 2022, BJP has a tie with Amritiya.

Apart from the main rivals, 101 candidates from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and 26 from the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) also contested the election. In the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP won 99 seats and the Congress 77, while two seats went to the BTP, one to the NCP and three to independents.

(with inputs from agencies)