Gujarat exit polls: Hardik Patel hardly creates any dent, Patels back BJP

If there is one thing that the exit polls for Gujarat indicated apart from a big BJP win, it was that Hardik Patel was a non-player in the election process. The Chanakya-News24 exit poll made it clear that Hardik was a non-player and he failed to convince the voters to vote against the BJP. With Hardik, the Congress was looking to topple the BJP in Gujarat.

The exit poll showed that 54 per cent of the Patels, voted for the BJP. The exit poll also went on to suggest that the others such as Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mewani too did not bring in the votes for the Congress.

The poll showed that the Patels, Forward Castes and OBCs voted in large number for the BJP. The ST votes were however equally split between the Congress and BJP.

The Patels probably were the biggest disappointment for the Congress. The Patels constitute almost 14 per cent of the electorate and were behind the BJP's rise in the state in the 1990s. However the exit polls suggested that the Patels even in 2017 backed the BJP heavily.

OneIndia News