It is a BJP sweep, an AAP flop in Gujarat, predicts exit polls

New Delhi, Dec 05: The BJP is not just set to retain, but sweep Gujarat, the exit polls have said. The Congress is set to come in second, while the much-hyped campaign by the Aam Aadmi Party does not seem to have found much water as the party is expected to come a distant third.

In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state, the BJP is expected to win its seventh successive term the exit polls have predicted. Almost all exit polls have said that the Aam Aadmi Party will win less than 10 states.

The exit polls give the BJP 131 of the 182 seats and the Congress plus its allies 41. The Congress would witness a sharp drop in its tally since the 2017 elections when it had won more than 100 seats.

The News-X-Jan Ki Baat survey gave the BJP 117-140 seats while the Congress was expected to win 34-51 and the AAP 6-13. Republic TV P-Marq predicted 128 to 148 for the BJP and 30 to 42 to the Congress. It said that the AAP would win in the range of 2 to 10 seats.

TV 9 Gujarati has predicted that the BJP would bag 125-130 seats and the Congress 40-50 while the AAP would end up with 3-5.

Polling was held in the second phase in Gujarat covering 93 seats across 14 districts of north and central regions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Aam Aadmi Party's chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Sukhram Rathva were among those who cast votes. Voting began at 8 am across 14,975 polling stations.

The BJP and the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP are contested in all the 93 seats. The Congress contested in 90 seats and its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has fielded two candidates. Among other parties, the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) fielded 12 candidates and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 44.