According to trends on the Election Commission’s website, the BJP was also leading in the Assembly seats of Unjha, Jamnagar Rural, Manavadar and Dhrangadhra, for which bypolls were held along with the Lok Sabha elections.
It appears the BJP is set to regain rural areas, including Saurashtra and north Gujarat, which the Modi-led party had lost in the 2015 local body elections and the assembly elections owing to the impact of Patidar quota agitation and rural distress.
Rutvik Patel was only 14 years old in 2015 when his community’s agitations for government quotas in higher education and jobs blazed through Gujarat. Hundreds of thousands of young Patidars poured into the streets from Surat to Ahmedabad. They burnt police stations, attacked the houses of state ministers, and wrecked public property.