BJP leading in 23 out of 25 LS seats in Gujarat; neck-to-neck fight Banaskantha and Patan

Ahmedabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has gained leads on 23 out of the 25 parliamentary seats in Gujarat on which votes were being counted on Tuesday, while it is witnessing a neck-to-neck fight with the Congress in Banaskantha and Patan.

The Congress has gained leads with a narrow margin in Banaskantha and Patan seats.

In the Banaskantha seat, Congress candidate Geniben Thakor was leading with a narrow margin of 155 votes. Till 12.30 pm, Thakor polled 3,19,938 lakh votes as against 3,19,783 votes bagged by BJP candidate Rekha Chaudhari.

Thakor, a sitting Congress MLA from Vav seat, was fielded as the party candidate for the Lok Sabha seat. On the other hand, Chaudhari, an academic, is contesting her first election.

In the Patan seat, Congress candidate Chandanji Thakor is leading over his BJP rival by a margin of 5,046 votes. He polled 3,12,446 votes as against the 3,07,400 votes polled by BJP candidate Bharatsinh Dabhi.

Thakor is a former Congress MLA from Sidhpur seat. He was defeated in the 2022 assembly elections.

On 23 other seats, the BJP candidates are enjoying a comfortable lead in the counting of votes.

Union Home Minister and BJP candidate from Gandhinagar Amit Shah is leading by 4.82 lakh votes, while state BJP president C R Paatil is leading in Navsari by 4.67 lakh votes.

Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya is leading by over 3.60 lakh votes from Porbandar, while his colleague Parshottam Rupala is leading by 3.52 lakh votes from Rajkot.

Out of the26 seats of Gujarat, Surat was won by the BJP uncontested. BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal won the seat unopposed after the nomination of Congress' Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected over irregularities in the signature of proposers and other candidates withdrew before the polls.

Elections in Gujarat were held in a single phase on May 7.