Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national President Amit Shah surpassed the victory margin of senior party leader L.K. Advani as counting entered 22nd round, even as his party was all set to bag all the 26 seats in Gujarat, repeating its 2014 performance.
With every vote count almost going into his kitty, Amit Shah had posted a huge margin of more than 5.10 lakh votes over Congress' C.J. Chavda. With this, Shah has left BJP patriarch Advani's 2014 lead of 4.83 lakh votes from the Gandhinagar constituency far behind. Three more rounds of counting remained.
Four ruling party candidates were ahead of their Congress rivals by over three lakh votes. Mohanbhai Kundariya of the BJP had polled 6,93,398 votes while his Congress rival Lalitbhai Kagathra was trailing in Rajkot constituency with 3,56,130 votes. Rajkot is Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's home town.
In a rare gesture of compassion, the BJP has decided to withhold all celebrations of victory in Rajkot in homage to the young son of Kagathara who died in a tragic accident a few days ago.
Ranjan Bhatt from Vadodara also leads with around three lakh votes, 4,11,047 over her Congress rival Prashant Patel, 1,25,339. Geeta Rathwa was also leading with over three lakh votes, with 6,64,917 over 3,42,427. Nasari BJP candidate CR Patil, with 4,49,315 leads over Congress' Bhimabhai Patel who has 1,35,726 after fifteen round.
Seven other BJP candidates are leading with over two lakh margin over their Congress rivals after fifteen rounds.
--IANS
desai/in
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