New Delhi, Dec. 8: According to election commission statistics, the governing BJP has reached the halfway point in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, for which voting was recently conducted in two parts. According to poll panel statistics released on Thursday, the incumbent BJP is in the lead in 149 seats and moving steadily towards a decisive win.
According to the EC, the opposition Congress, which was hoping to retake power, is in the lead with 18 seats, followed by the AAP, a new contender, with 6, the Independents with 3, and the Samajwadi Party with 1.
Bhupendra Patel, the BJP candidate for the Ghatlodia Assembly seat and the chief minister of Gujarat, is expected to keep his seat.
He currently has 23,713 votes, according to the EC, ahead of Congress contender A Yajnik, who received 3840 votes. With a turnout of 66.38 percent, the Assembly elections were held on December 1 and December 5 in two parts. Exit polls indicated that the BJP would win handily.
AAP, which ran a vigorous campaign and defeated the BJP handily in the Delhi local elections, is poised to make a tenuous start in Gujarat. Arvind Kejriwal, the party's leader, had projected an outright win yesterday when the results of the civic election were announced, but so far, AAP advantages have essentially been contained to single digits.
In 2017, the BJP won 99 seats, while the Congress took home 77 seats.
