Gujarat AAP chief Gopal Italia trails as party struggles to open its account

Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], December 8 (ANI): As the Aam Aadmi Party struggles to open its account in the latest trends for the Gujarat Assembly polls, state party chief Gopal Italia also trailed against his BJP opponent Vinodbhai Moradiya on the Katargam seat by a margin of over 50,000 votes.
According to the latest data shared by the Election Commission till 1.45 pm, Italia got 45,424 votes with a 28.2 per cent vote share while, BJP's Moradiya secured 96,469 votes with a vote percentage of over 50 per cent. He has got a massive 59.89 per cent so far.
According to the EC, the BJP has won 5 seats so far and is leading on 153 seats.
Congress opened its account with 1 victory as the party leads on 15 seats. The AAP has not been able to open its account so far with zero wins as the party continues to lead in single-digit seats.
The counting of votes for the Gujarat Assembly elections began on Thursday at 8 am.
The counting in Gujarat began at 37 centres in 33 districts.
Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer P Bharathi said that 182 counting observers, 182 election officers and 494 assistant election officers are on duty for the counting process. There will be an additional 78 Assistant Election Officers for the counting of votes. In addition, 71 additional Assistant Election Officers have been assigned responsibility for the electronically transmitted postal ballot system in the previous polls
Assembly elections in Gujarat were held in two phases on December 1 and 5 respectively.
The approximate voter turnout in Gujarat by the end of the second phase of the Gujarat elections was recorded at 59.11 per cent.
During the first phase of polling on December 1, Gujarat saw an overall turnout of 63.14 per cent. While polling for 68 assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh was held on November 12.
Meanwhile, the exit polls have indicated a clear win for the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat.
BJP has been in power in Gujarat for 27 years with Prime Minister Narendra Modi remaining in the Chief Minister's post for the longest time before becoming the Prime Minister. Congress gave a tough fight to the ruling BJP in the last assembly elections in 2017. However, AAP may spoil the game for Congress by taking away a significant vote share in their favour. (ANI)