The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was leading in 24 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat and the Congress in one, as per the latest trends available of counting underway for 25 constituencies in the state on Tuesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared an uncontested winner from Surat seat after the nomination form of the Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected over irregularities in the signature of proposers and other candidates withdrew from the fray before the polls. Polling was held for the remaining 25 seats in the third of the seven phase mammoth elections on May 7.
Prominent candidates from Gujarat include union home minister Amit Shah who is up against Congress’ Sonal Patel. Meanwhile, in Rajkot, BJP’s Parshottam Rupala is facing off against Congress’ Paresh Dhanani. Porbandar’s constituency is seeing BJP’s Mansukh Mandaviya against Congress’ Lalitbhai Vasoya. Anand is witnessing BJP’s Mitesh Rameshbhai Patel against Congress’ Amitbhai Chavda. In Bhavnagar, BJP’s Nimu Bambhania is up against AAP’s Umesh Makwana.
The Congress, which is contesting the elections in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is hoping to prevent division of opposition votes in order to prevent BJP from repeating its sweeping performance of 2014 and 2019. As part of the alliance, the Congress, which has fielded four sitting and eight former MLAs, got 24 seats (including Surat), while the AAP has been given Bhavnagar and Bharuch.
The BJP is looking to repeat its sweep in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. In the 2019 and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the saffron camp has emerged victorious on all 26 seats.
State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P Bharathi said 56 counting observers, 30 election officers and 180 assistant election officers would be on duty during the counting. In addition to this, 614 assistant election officers have been assigned the responsibility for postal ballots.
The BJP’s campaign, in a state considered its strongest base, was led by PM Modi and Shah. For the Congress, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were among the star campaigners, along with Mallikarjun Kharge. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP’s campaign saw rallies by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as well as senior leaders Sanjay Singh and Gopal Yadav. Sunita Kejriwal, the wife of the Delhi CM who is in jail in connection with an excise policy-linked case, also held a roadshow in Bharuch.
During the campaign, the BJP had to face the ire of the Kshatriya community over a remark made by Rupala in Rajkot. He had claimed that several rulers from the community had “roti and beti” (marriage and trade) relations with the British and other foreign invaders.
Rupala was pitted against former Congress MLA Paresh Dhanani, who defeated him in the 2002 assembly polls.
Several leaders from the community had appealed to their brethren to forgive Rupala for the remark and vote for the BJP for the sake of the nation and PM Modi.
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