Gujarat election result 2017: Congress, BJP in neck-to-neck fight

The elections for 182-seat Assembly were held on December 9 and 14

The ruling BJP is leading in over 81 seats while its prime rival Congress was ahead on 71 seats, as early trends of Assembly polls started pouring in from across Gujarat. The trend provided by CNN News 18 channel, in the first one hour of counting, the Congress and BJP are in neck-to-neck fight. As of now, Congress leads have exceeded its current assembly tally.

Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani was leading from Vadgam constituency, CM Vijay Rupani was trailing from Rajkot West constituency, and Congress leader trailing by 1300 votes from Mandvi. BJP's Nitinbhai Patel is trailing by over 3000 votes from Mahesana

OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who joined the Congress, was leading in Radhanpur.

The elections for 182-seat Assembly were held on December 9 and 14, after an acrimonious campaign, which was dominated by a face-off between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. In the 2012 elections, the BJP had won 115 seats while the Congress emerged victorious on 61 seats.

The main contestants from the BJP are Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani (Rajkot West), Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel (Mehsana) and state BJP unit president Jitu Vaghani (Bhavnagar West).

The main contenders from the Congress are Shaktisinh Gohil (Mandvi), Arjun Modhvadia (Porbandar), Siddharth Patel (Dabhoi), and Paresh Dhanai (Amreli).

(With agency inputs)