HIGHLIGHTS | Assembly elections results: BJP sweeps Gujarat, Congress wins Himachal

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— Congress (@INCIndia) December 8, 2022

Dhani Ram Shandil retained the Solan seat, defeating his nearest BJP rival and son-in-law Rajesh Kashyap. Shandil, a retired army colonel and the oldest candidate in the fray at 82, had maintained a lead over Kashyap right from the start, and the final margin of victory was 3,858 votes.

Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu won from Nadaun assembly seat in Hamirpur district, defeating the BJP's Vijay Kumar Agnihotri by 3,363 votes. Sukhu received 36,142 votes while Agnihotri polled 32,779 votes.

Also, this was the fourth time that Agnihotri locked horns with him from the constituency.

In the 2017 elections, Sukhu defeated Agnihotri by 2,349 votes, while in 2012, Agnihotri got the better of the Congress leader by more than 6,000 votes. In 2007, Sukhu defeated Agnihotri by over 500 votes.

Priyanka Gandhi led the party's charge in Himachal Pradesh with several rallies and was also closely involved in strategy planning for the polls. All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Himachal Pradesh Rajeev Shukla hailed Priyanka Gandhi's campaign and leadership, lauding the "hard work" put in by her.

Sitting BJP MLA from Gujarat's Bhavnagar Rural constituency and prominent Koli leader Parshottam Solanki defeated his Congress rival Revatsinh Gohil by 73484 votes.

After the end of the 24 rounds of counting, Solanki polled 114974 votes, while Gohil got 42096 votes.

For Solanki, a former state minister, it was his sixth straight win as an MLA as he had won the Assembly polls between 1998 to 2017.

AAP candidate Khumansinh Gohil, who hails from the Kshatriya community like Revatsinh Gohil, failed to make any mark in this Koli-dominated constituency as he received 16824 votes.

Imran Khedawala, the sitting Congress MLA from Jamalpur-Khadia seat in Gujarat, defeated BJP candidate Bhushan Bhatt by 13658 votes.

While Khedawala polled 58235 votes, Bhatt got 44,649 votes.

Sabir Kabliwala, former Congress MLA and now All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen's (AIMIM) state president, polled 15655 votes.

The entry of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM failed to damage the prospects of Khedawala.

Congress' Rajendrasinh Parmar lost to BJP's Ramanbhai Solanki in Borsad, a seat the grand old party held for six decades. The seat was once held by former Gujarat Chief Minister Madhavsinh Solanki and thrice by his son Bharatsinh Solanki. 

I'm thankful to voters in Himachal also where our vote share was less than 1 per cent below that of winning party: PM Modi. 

PM Narendra Modi arrives at BJP HQ in Delhi after BJP's victory in the Gujarat Assembly elections. pic.twitter.com/4irbBT9R9r

— ANI (@ANI) December 8, 2022

Mohan Konkani, the BJP's first Christian candidate in Gujarat in 20 years, has clinched Vyara, a tribal seat in Gujarat's Tapi. The Congress too had fielded a Christian candidate -- making Vyara the first seat to witness a face-off between Christian candidates -- tribal Christians at that.

The seat had been a stronghold of the Congress with party veteran Amarsinh Chaudhary winning the seat on four separate occasions.

Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani wins Vadgam assembly seat for Congress.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's strategy to drop half of its sitting MLAs to fight anti-incumbency appeared to have paid off in Bharuch.

The party won the seat with an impressive margin of 64,000 votes.

Ramesh Mistry, who was picked in place of sitting MLA Dushyantbhai Patel to contest from this BJP stronghold, polled 108,181 votes, compared to 44,087 votes polled by his nearest rival from the Congress party, Jaikantbhai Patel.

• Mainpuri seat: SP's Dimple Yadav defeats BJP's Raghuraj Singh Shakya
• Rampur seat: BJP's Akash Saxena defeats SP's Asim Raja
• Khatauli seat: RLD's Madan Bhaiya defeats BJP's Rajkumar Saini
• Kurhani seat: BJP's Kedar Gupta defeats JD(U)'s Manoj Kushwaha
• Sardarshahar seat: Congress' Anil Sharma defeats BJP's Ashok Pincha 
• Padampur seat: BJD's Barsha Singh Bariha defeats BJP's Pradip Purohit
• Bhanupratappur seat: Congress' Savitri Manoj Mandavi defeats BJP's Bramhanand Netam

READ REPORT HERE

BJP MLA Sangita Patil on Thursday headed for a third straight win in Surat's Marathi and Muslim-dominated Limbayat constituency, taking a lead of about 45,000 votes over her nearest rival - Aam Aadmi Party's Pankaj Tayede.

After 17 rounds of voting, Patil had polled 72,122 votes, compared to 27,143 votes cast in favour of Tayede.

The Congress party's candidate, Gopalbhai Patil, was placed third with 22,773, according data available with Election Commission.

The battle of ballots in Limbayat assembly turned interesting when the BJP named Sangita Patil as its candidate from the seat despite strong anti-incumbency.

• Babu Patel won 6th-time from Daskroi - BJP
• Yogesh Patel won 8th-time from Manjalpur - BJP
• Pabubha won 7th time from Dwarka - BJP
• Parasottam Solanki won 6th time from Bhavnagar Rural - BJP
• Kandhal Jadeja won 4th-time from Kutiana - SP
• Jayesh Radadiya won for 6th time from Jetpu - BJP

Koli community leader and sitting BJP MLA Kunvarji Bavaliya defeated his nearest rival from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Tejas Gajipara, by a margin of 16,172 votes to win from this rural constituency in Saurashtra .

The results came as a surprise as the contest in Jasdan was mostly seen as a fight between six-time MLA Bavaliya and his one-time prodigy Bholabhai Gohil, who was fielded the Congress party.

The BJP has returned to power for the seventh time in Gujarat with a record mandate, with projections showing that they will win over 150 seats.

The late Congress CM Madhavsinh Solanki had come up with the KHAM (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim) theory after realising that this bloc constitutes nearly three-fourths of Gujarat's population.

Wooing the KHAMs helped the Congress win big. They clinched 142 seats in 1980 and 149 seats, as mentioned, in 1985.

It has been a record that the BJP has been trying to break ever since.

This time the BJP had tried to conjure up an almost similar formula and do a Solanki. The only difference was that the ruling party left out Muslims and included the Patidars -- call it the KHAP (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Patidar) theory, if you will. To help them further, they had sprinkled a liberal helping of Hindutva on top of this

With the Congress set to cross the majority mark in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur Thursday said he respects the mandate and was going to hand over his resignation to the governor.

"I respect the mandate. In a short while, I am going to hand over my resignation to the governor," Thakur told reporters here.

The Congress on Thursday appeared to be heading to achieve majority in Himachal Pradesh as it surged ahead of the BJP, winning 16 seats and leading in 23 others.

Isudan Gadhvi, the Aam Aadmi Party's CM face in Gujarat, lost in the Assembly election from Khambhalia on Thursday by more than 18,000 votes as his BJP rival came back from behind to clinch the seat.

Gadhvi was leading at the end of the fourth round over Congress's incumbent MLA Vikram Madam, while the BJP's Mulubhai Bera was trailing in the third place.But Bera surpassed his rivals in the later rounds of vote counting.

#GujaratElections : Gujarat Congress in-charge Raghu Sharma resigns from post after poor results of Congress.@NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard @santwana99

— Dilip Singh Kshatriya (@Kshatriyadilip) December 8, 2022

Bhupendra Patel, Bharatiya Janata Party's soft-spoken face in Gujarat, is set to retain the chief ministerial chair after the party swept the state Assembly elections, trouncing rivals Congress and Aam Aadmi Party.

CM Bhupendra Patel won Ghatlodia seat by a margin of 1.92 lakh votes.

State BJP president C R Paatil on Thursday said Patel will be sworn in as CM again on December 12.

A dedicated party worker, who made his way up in the state politics from the municipality level, Patel was a surprise choice for the top post when the BJP decided to effect a regime change, replacing the entire ministry a year before the elections.

More than 4,50,000 voters in 24 Assembly seats cast their votes under NOTA in Gujarat.

Other parties tried to fool people of Gujarat by making promises that can never be fulfilled; got befitting reply. It's a victory of good governance and development of BJP government at Centre and Gujarat. I want to thank PM Narendra Modi for carrying out extensive campaign for BJP in Gujarat.

#GujaratElections #Gujarat Bhartiya Janta Party President @CRPaatil said Gujarat loves PM Modi so they voted for Development and to give strength to PM Modi.@NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard @santwana99 pic.twitter.com/fEETTil0LF

— Dilip Singh Kshatriya (@Kshatriyadilip) December 8, 2022

All elected #MLAs of @INCIndia from #Himachal are being moved to #Chandigarh tonight after they pick up their certificates.

— Shahid Faridi (@Shahid_Faridi_) December 8, 2022

BJP candidate Yogesh Patel on Thursday appeared on course to wrest the Anand assembly constituency in Gujarat from the Congress.

Patel was leading by over 40,000 votes after 22 rounds over Kanti Sodha Parmar of Congress in Anand, which gave the world the famous 'Amul' dairy brand.

Rivaba replaces sitting MLA Dharmendrasinh Jadeja as the BJP face for the Jamnagar (North) seat, who was denied a party ticket in this election, according to sources.

In the midst of the BJP landslide in Gujarat, an upset win.

Ex-Congress president and ex-leader of the opposition Arjunbhai Devabhai Modhwadia has defeated BJP minister Babubhai Bhimabhai Bokhiria from Porbandar in Gujarat.

Modhwadia had lost to Bokhiria from the seat both in 2012 and 2017 -- by 1855 votes then.

BJP's Ritesh Vasava bagged 89,933 votes, while Chhotubhai Vasava secured 66,433 ballots. Seventy-eight year old Vasava lost to his one-time aide Ritesh in the Scheduled Tribes-reserved constituency in Bharuch district.

Since 1990, Chhotubhai Vasava had won the seat for seven straight terms as the candidate of the Janata Dal, the Janata Dal (United), as an independent and then as the nominee of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) which he founded.

#GujaratElectionResults | Despite the recent tragic bridge collapse in #Morbi, the ruling BJP is leading in all three constituencies there. They had not won a single seat in Morbi in 2017.

LIVE: https://t.co/v1FakFkXpo pic.twitter.com/phbZ6fBv6O

— The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) December 8, 2022

Expert analysis on #GujaratElectionResults by TNIE journalist @Kshatriyadilip.#GujaratAssemblyElection2022 @santwana99 pic.twitter.com/LvEBzXXthQ

— The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) December 8, 2022

Independent candidate and BJP rebel Dharmendrasinh Vaghela was on Thursday leading over the party's nominee Ashvin Patel in Vaghodia assembly constituency.

Congress candidate Satyajitsinh Gaekwad was at the third spot after seven rounds, followed by six-term MLA Madhu Shrivastav.

PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah will be at the BJP Headquarters "Shree Kamalam" in Gujarat in the evening to celebrate the BJP's historical win. Will it be the biggest ever by a party in the state? That is the only question that needs to be answered.

Jignesh Mevani, the prominent Dalit leader who joined the Congress, is trailing in Gujarat.

Mevani, set to celebrate his 42nd birthday on December 11, was fighting the election from Vadgam, a seat he had won as an independent in 2017. This time around he had to crowdfund his campaign after finding that the money given to him by the party "was not sufficient" to fight the election.

In fact, a 'fund-starved' Congress faced charges of shortchanging by its leaders during the campaign. Gujarat Congress leaders had complained that they have been given less by party leaders than what had been sent by the high command for meeting poll expenses. They also alleged that they have signed on a receipt showing a bigger amount than what they have received.

Not an ideal preparation to take on the richest political party in India.

BJP seen inching towards all-time high tally of 149 seats in 182-member House; Congress ahead in 19, AAP in 9 seats.

In an election that they are sweeping and with a record margin, the BJP is leading in two Muslim-dominated seats in Gujarat too -  in Dariapur and Jamalpur Khaidya in Ahmedabad. Both had been won by the Congress in 2017. Gyasuddin Sheikh (Dariapur) and Imran Khedawala (Jamalpur Khaidya) are the current MLAs.

The ruling party is leading in all other Muslim-dominated seats too -- a standout stat in an election that is set to see them register their biggest win in the state.

Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel on Thursday is heading for a second straight win from the urban constituency of Ghatlodia, where he had taken a comfortable lead of almost 20,000 votes over his nearest rival after five rounds of vote counting.

As per the latest update from the Election Commission, Patel had polled 23,713 votes, compared to 3,840 votes polled by his Congress rival Amiben Yagnik.

AAP's CM face Isudan Gadhvi leads from Khambhalia in Saurashtra

Isudan Gadhvi, the Aam Aadmi Party's CM face in Gujarat, on Thursday has taken an early lead over Congress party's sitting MLA from Khambhalia, Vikram Madam, while BJP's Mulubhai Bera was seen finishing third.

After four rounds of voting in the assembly polls, Gadhvi had polled 13,658 votes, compared to 9,889 votes polled by incumbent Madam.

Tribal heavyweight, BTP founder Chhotu Vasava trailing in Jhagadia seat 

Veteran tribal leader and founder of the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) Chhotu Vasava was trailing after three rounds in Jhagadia seat in Bharuch district as counting of votes in the assembly elections commenced Thursday morning.

His one-time aide and BJP candidate Ritesh Vasava was ahead by over 6,000 votes.

BJP rebel Hoshyar Singh, fighting as an independent, is leading in the Dehra seat of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh. The Congress is next and the BJP has been relegated to the third spot, reports our correspondent Harpreet Bajwa. 

Another BJP rebel KL Thakur is leading from Nalagarh and a third BJP rebel Ashish Sharma is leading from Hamirpur.

Interestingly, AAP is not leading in even one out of the 62 seats it contested in. Opening their account might prove to be a herculean task for the AAP in the state by the looks of it.

The BJP is leading in 25 out of the 27 tribal seats in Gujarat, says our correspondent Dilip Singh Kshatriya.

What makes these leads all the more interesting is the fact that the Gujarat government had to scrap the Par-Tapi river link project recently after it triggered a lot of resentment among the tribals. The project was set to displace the people of 69 villages.

"The project would have damaged our land, rivers and the environment. What kind of development was it?" Pradeep Garasia, president of the Samast Adivasi Samaj Sansthan, had asked. 

But if the leads hold, the leading party can claim that they have managed to win over the tribals.

In Mandi the home district of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, BJP is leading on 9 seats and Congress on 1 seat out of the total of ten seats.

#GujaratElections : AAP's Chief Minister Face Isudan Gadhvi is trailing from Saurashtra's Khambhalia seat @NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard @santwana99

— Dilip Singh Kshatriya (@Kshatriyadilip) December 8, 2022

#GujaratElections : Hardik Patel of BJP on Viramgam seat, Lovingji Thakor of BJP on Radhanpur seat, Alpesh Thakor of BJP on Gandhinagar South seat, Kalpesh Parmar on Matar seat leading.@NewIndianXpress @TheMornStandard @santwana99

— Dilip Singh Kshatriya (@Kshatriyadilip) December 8, 2022

BJP ahead in 20 seats, Congress in 13 and Independents in two, according to Election Commission website.

In the first 30 minutes, postal ballot papers were counted and then counting of votes for electronic voting machines (EVMs) commenced at 8.30 am.

However, according to TV channel reports, the Congress is leading in 37 seats and BJP in 31.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and Himachal Pradesh Congress president Pratibha Singh have maintained that their parties would get full majority with over 40 out of the 68 seats.

The BJP was leading in 42 seats, while Congress was ahead in six and the AAP was winning four seats, according to early trends reported by the Election Commission.

Television channels, however, reported that BJP was ahead in more than 100 seats, the Congress in about 50 and the AAP was struggling to take its tally into double digits.

A total of 70 political parties and 624 independents were in the fray.

Apart from the main rivals BJP, Congress and AAP, 101 candidates from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and 26 from Bharatiya Tribal party (BTP) also contested.

Can BJP return to power for the seventh time in Gujarat with a record mandate? That is now the big question as they are in sight of Madhav Singh Solanki's 149-seat tally in the 1985 elections.

The late Solanki had come up with the KHAM (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim) theory after realising that this bloc constitutes nearly three-fourths of Gujarat's population. Wooing the KHAMs helped the Congress win big. They clinched 142 seats in 1980 and 149 seats, as mentioned, in 1985. 

It has been a record that the BJP has been trying to break for the last 27 years.

This time the BJP had tried to conjure up an almost similar formula and do a Solanki. The only difference was that the ruling party left out Muslims and included the Patidars -- call it the KHAP (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Patidar) theory, if you will. To help them further, they had sprinkled a liberal helping of Hindutva on top of this. Will it help them fulfil their dream? We need to find out.

According to current trends, the BJP has a 53.9 percent vote share, Congress 28.3 percent and Aam Aadmi Party a 13.4 percent share, our correspondent Dilip Singh Kshatriya shares.
 

Despite the recent tragic bridge collapse in Morbi, the ruling BJP is leading in all three constituencies there. They had not won a single seat in Morbi in 2017!

The Vyara Assembly seat is witnessing a unique battle. Both the Congress and BJP have fielded Christian candidates - tribal Christians. This is a first. Either Mohan Konkani (BJP) or Punabhai Gamit (Congress) will make history by winning this seat.

#BJP leads in over 130 seats in #GujaratElections. In #HimachalPradesh, early trends show a close fight between the saffron party and the #Congress.#GujaratElectionResult #HimachalElectionResults

LIVE: https://t.co/R37aocmyeu pic.twitter.com/7vqlFBnR2S

— The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) December 8, 2022

A day ahead of the counting for Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress has expelled 30 party "office-bearers" from the primary membership for six years for "anti-party activities".

Those expelled include vice presidents and former vice presidents of the Shimla (Rural) district committee of the party and a general secretary of NSUI (National Students' Union of India).(Read more here.)

Early numbers are coming in. These are from postal ballots. Counting of EVM votes will only begin at 9 am. It is then too early to make any calls.

Gujarat will see the BJP win an eighth consecutive term, but what about the number of seats they will win? The prediction from our man on the ground:

A hung assembly in Himachal Pradesh? Our view:

In Himachal Pradesh, the exit polls suggest a close fight between BJP and the Congress. The Congress party lost power to the BJP in 2017. The BJP managed to win 44 seats against the 21 seats won by the Congress. This time, exit polls predict that BJP would win around 35-40 seats, while the Congress 30-40 seats. Will the saffron party survive anti-incumbency? It is going to be close.

• The exit polls projected a range of 24-41 seats for the BJP and 20-40 seats for the Congress in the 68-member assembly.
• The majority mark is 35 seats.

Most predictions point to a comfortable majority for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has not lost an election in the state since 1995.

The Modi government is struggling with rising inflation, slowing growth and joblessness, but economic troubles are unlikely to dent BJP's popularity in Gujarat that has been a bastion of the party for decades and where Narendra Modi was chief minister from 2001 to 2014.

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seem to be locked in a battle to grab the status of the main opposition party in the state.

• All exit polls predicted a big mandate for the BJP in the range of 117-151 seats in the 182-member assembly.
• The Congress was predicted to bag seats in the range of 16-51.
• The Aam Aadmi Party was projected to bag anything between two and 13 seats.
• The majority mark in Gujarat is 92.
 

•  68 counting halls in 59 locations to cover the 68 Assembly seats; The majority mark is 35 seats.
• 412 candidates 
• 75.6 per cent turnout during polling on Nov 12
• Women voter turnout in Himachal has surpassed men's since 1998. Also, a historic voter registration in the hill state in the 18-19 year segment has given the BJP a reason to believe it may have an edge.
• BJP hopes to repeat its trend of repeating state governments while the Congress is expecting voters to go by the four-decade old tradition of voting out the sitting government in the state.
• Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Rashtriya Devbhumi Party (RDP) also in the fray.

• 37 counting centres covering the 182 Assembly seats; The majority mark in Gujarat is 92.
• 1,621 candidates
• Voter turnout: 63.14 per cent for Phase I on December 1, and 59.11 per cent for Phase II on Dec 5
• There will be three centres in Ahmedabad, two in Surat and Anand, and one in each of the remaining 30 districts
• The fate of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, AAP’s chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi, youth leaders Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani and Alpesh Thakor will be decided today