By BOOM Team
The counting of votes for the Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh is underway, with the BJP marking early gains in its stronghold Gujarat. In the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, while the BJP showed early leads, the Congress zoomed past it to maintain the lead on 39 out of 68 seats.
According to the Election Commission website, trends so far in Gujarat indicate BJP having an upper hand on 151 out of 182 seats so far, while the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are leading on 6 and 20 seats, respectively. Gujarat has a total of 182 seats and the majority mark is 92.
Here are all the updates on counting in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls.
Gujarat
BJP in Gujarat has so far shown the highest vote share with 53.54% of votes being cast in its favour. The next party to grab the most votes is Congress with 26.54% votes, followed by AAP at 12.83%, the EC said on its website. BJP has a lead on 151 seats and has been declared the winner on 2 seats, as per the EC website.
News agency ANI shared visuals of celebrations by BJP workers at several locations in Gujarat as the party looks ahead to a landslide victory.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, the incumbent BJP had won with a simple majority with 99 seats. Congress had followed with 77 seats and a vote share of 41.4%.
Meanwhile, Aam Admi Party's Gujarat chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi is leading from Khambhalia constituency with a total of 18,998 votes so far as the counting continues. The Kejriwal-led party is leading on 8 seats with a vote share of 12.78%, according to the data shared on EC website. Contesting the assembly elections in Gujarat for the first time, the AAP organised a power-packed campaign in the state over the last few months.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the BJP's victory in Gujarat is "expected". "I'm commenting on something which was widely expected. It's the actual manifestation of the kind of development-anchored work that the BJP, under the leadership of PM, has been undertaking. It's a model for the whole country," Puri was quoted as saying by ANI.
Himachal Pradesh
Results on the EC website show Congress leading on 39 of 68 seats. The majority mark is 35.
The BJP has so far maintained the lead on 25 seats and has bagged one seat already after Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur was declared winner from the Seraj seat by a margin of 24,300 votes, Indian Express reported.
So far the BJP is leading the vote share narrowly at 43.57%, followed by Congress at 43.31% a thin margin against the Congress, numbers shared by the EC indicated. AAP has made minor gains with 1.05% vote share. In 2017 polls, Congress, which had been in power since 2012, had suffered losses at the hands of the 21 seats, while the BJP won 44 seats.
The Congress looks confident of its victory here and is looking ahead to a comfortable majority. "No neck-to-neck fight, we're heading towards an absolute majority and going to give a stable government. No Operation Keechad will work and neither will we allow it," Congress leader Pawan Khera was quoted as saying by the ANI, with a jibe at the BJP.
