Gujarat Assembly: 2017 election result, current composition, other details
Gujarat elections have largely been a two-party contest but the Aam Aadmi Party, encouraged by the massive win in 2022 Punjab assembly elections, is leading an aggressive campaign to make the fight three-cornered.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) is likely to announce the schedule for assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh today. The top officials of the poll body recently visited the two states to take stock of preparedness. While the term of the Gujarat Assembly ends on February 18 next year, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly term ends on January 8, 2023.
What happened last time
Gujarat elections have largely been a two-party contest but the Aam Aadmi Party, encouraged by the massive win in 2022 Punjab assembly elections, is leading an aggressive campaign to make the fight three-cornered.
In the 2017 Gujarat assembly elections, BJP came out victorious in a relatively close fight against the Congress party. The Bharatiya Janata Party won in 99 assembly constituencies and secured 49.05% of the valid votes polled in the state. Congress won in 77 assembly segments of the 177 where the party fielded its candidates.
In the 182-seat strong Gujarat assembly, 13 assembly constituencies were reserved for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste while 27 to the members of Scheduled Tribe.
Of 43,546,956 registered voters, 29,780,699 people exercised their voting rights, recording 68.39% turnout. Male voters recorded higher turnout (70.49 %) against their female counterparts (66.11 %). A total of 1828 candidates – 1702 male, 126 female – were in fray for the 2017 Gujarat.
Current Assembly composition
Congress's numbers in the Gujarat assembly have been on a decline since the last elections, with several of its MLAs defecting to the BJP. The Gujarat assembly has currently 111 members from the BJP, 62 from Congress, one each from Nationalist Congress Party and Bharatiya Tribal Party, and one independent.