Gujarat election: BJP marks victory with 99 seats

Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], Dec 18 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the election for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly on Monday, claiming a clear majority of 99 seats.

The Congress Party trailed in second with 77 seats, followed by the Bharatiya Tribal Party (two) and NCP (one), while independent candidates won three seats.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani secured a comfortable win from Rajkot West seat by 1,31,586 votes, which is the largest constituency in the Saurashtra region.

BJP's state unit President Jitu Vaghani bagged the prestigious Bhavnagar West constituency, beating Congress's Dilipsinh Gohil with a comfortable margin of 53,893.

The party registered another easy win in Maninagar, the erstwhile constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where candidate Suresh Patel won with a whopping margin of 75,199 votes.

It was a close call in Godhra for Congress rebel C K Raulji contesting on the BJP ticket, who won by a tiny margin of 258 votes.

Similarly in Porbandar, one of the most politically-crucial constituencies in the state, Fisheries Minister of State BJP's Babubhai Bokhiriya defeated his old rival Congress' Arjunbhai Modhwadia by a small margin of 1855 votes.

Another seat in the constituency was also won by party's candidate Babubhai Bokhiriya who defeated one of the most prominent faces of Congress, Arjun Modhwadiya by a close margin of 1,855 votes.

In Mandvi constituency, another Congress heavyweight Shaktisinh Gohil was defeated by BJP's Virendrasinh Jadeja by 9,046 votes.

However, the Congress retained its strongholds in Amreli and Una constituencies by 12,029 votes and 4,928 votes respectively.

Meanwhile, the BJP lost the Vadgam constituency, a tough seat for the party. The public of Vadgam, comprising 16 percent Dalits and 25 percent Muslim population, gave its mandate to independent candidate and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani. (ANI)