After trailing for some time, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani finally secured a comfortable win from Rajkot West seat by 131586 votes.
Rupani, the state chief since August last year, was behind his Congress rival Indranil Rajguru in Rajkot West in the first hour.
The Rajkot (West) is a prestigious seat as Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested from here as Gujarat chief minister in 2002.
This seat has been with the BJP for over three decades. The seat is also known as the CM seat in the state. Rupani defeated Congress' Jayantibhai Kalaria by a margin of 23, 740 votes.
Largest constituency in the Saurashtra region, this seat is totally dominated by urban voters.
There are total 316665 registered voters. As per caste equation, there are about 42,000 Kadwa Patels, 33,000 Leuvva Patels, 25,000 Brahmins, 35,000 Kshatriyas, 25,000 Baniyas and around 10,000 Jains. The assembly constituency represents Rajkot Taluka (Part) - Rajkot Municipal Corporation (Part) Ward No. - 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 22, 23, 24.
Since the Congress' campaign across Gujarat revolved around highlighting ill effects of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), the party saw it is an opportunity to woo around mainly businessmen 35000 Baniyas and Jains of Rajkot East.