E-Paper
Gujarat CM Rupani wins in Rajkot West, deputy Nitin Patel leading in assembly election results
Gujarat assembly election results show Vijay Rupani, Nitin Patel and Saurabh Patel are trailing.
Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani won the Rajkot West constituency after trailing in initial trends for assembly election results on Monday and his deputy Nitin Patel is leading in his constituency.
Rupani, 61 banked on his network and party workers to retain the Rajkot West seat by over 63,000 votes. The BJP has never lost Rajkot West since 1985, but the entry of Congress leader Indranil Rajyaguru, who gave up his Rajkot East seat to challenge Rupani, had made the contest interesting. Rupani has contested elections only once before, winning Rajkot West in a 2015 by-election.
Deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, 61, is trailing in Mehsana, the centre of the Patidar community’s agitation in 2015 for reservation. Mehsana district contains Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s hometown Vadnagar and the constituency has been with BJP since 1990. Nitin Patel won from Mehsana in the 2012 elections, but this time he contesting against 34 candidates. Patidar agigation leader Hardik Patel has supported the Congress candidate in Mehsana.
Saurabh Patel, 59, was a heavyweight minister in the Anandiben Patel government was sidelined after being dropped from the Vijay Rupani ministry in 2016. Patel, who has an MBA, was instrumental in organising Vibrant Gujarat summits as minister. He is trailing in Botad, a constituency which has a mixed population of Patels and OBCs. Patel, who belongs to the Leuva Patel caste, won Botad in 2007 by a thin margin. He shifted to Akota in Vaodara city in the 2012 assembly elections, winning by a comfortable margin.
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