Ahmedabad: The BJP has clinched 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in Gujarat, including the Surat seat which it had won unopposed, but missed a hat-trick of a clean sweep with the Congress bagging Banaskantha constituency, a first victory in the general elections in the western state in the last ten years.
Notably, the saffron party had won all 26 seats in the 2014 and 2019 general elections in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Election Commission of India in the evening declared that the Bharatiya Janata Party has won 24 Lok Sabha seats while the Congress emerged victorious in one constituency.
Prominent candidates to win Lok Sabha elections from Gujarat include Amit Shah, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, and their Cabinet colleagues Parshottam Rupala and Devusinh Chauhan. The BJP won eight seats with a margin of over 3 lakh votes and four others, namely Gandhinagar, Navsari, Panchmahal and Vadodara, by a margin of over 5 lakh votes.
Two AAP candidates who had contested under the INDI alliance in Bharuch and Bhavnagar lost to BJP. Elections were held on 25 of 26 constituencies in Gujarat as the BJP had won the Surat seat unopposed even when the election process was underway after the nomination of the Congress candidate was rejected due to irregularities in the signatures.
Subsequently, all other candidates withdrew from the contest. Shah won with a margin of 7,44,716 votes by polling 10,10,972 votes, crushing his nearest rival from Congress, Sonal Patel, who secured 2,66,256 votes. Mandaviya bagged the Porbandar Lok Sabha seat by defeating his nearest Congress rival Lalit Vasoya by a margin of 3.83 lakh votes. Mandaviya bagged 6,33,118 votes, while Vasoya polled 2,49,758.
Rupala, who faced protests from the Rajput community due to his remarks on erstwhile rulers in the run-up to elections, won from the Rajkot constituency by a margin of 4,84,260 votes defeating senior Congress leader Paresh Dhanani. Rupala polled 8,57,984 votes and Dhanani 3,73,724.
Another prominent victory was registered by Gujarat BJP president and sitting MP CR Paatil from Navsari constituency who won by a margin of 7.73 lakh votes, the highest in Gujarat this time. He handed a crushing defeat to his nearest Congress rival Naishadh Desai.
Paatil secured 10,31,035 votes while Desai polled 2,57,514 votes. With this victory, Paatil has secured a fourth straight term in Lok Sabha. Union minister Devusinh Chauhan won by a margin of 3,57,758 votes defeating Kalusinh Dabhi of Congress who polled 3,86,677 votes.
