Gujarat: Amit Shah set to win, BJP ahead on all 26 seats

Ahmedabad, May 23 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday appeared all set to capture all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat yet again even as its national President Amit Shah was leading by a hefty margin of over 2.38 lakh votes at the end of the first 10 rounds of counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections.

Shah, contesting from the Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency for the first time, has bagged 3,52,099 votes to establish a lead of more than 2.38 lakh votes over his nearest rival C.J. Chawda of the Congress who has managed 1,13,436 votes.

As many as 15 BJP candidates were well ahead of their nearest rivals by more than one lakh votes. Woman candidate Ranjan Bhatt from Vadodara has established a margin of around 2 lakh votes over Congress' Prashant Patel.

Another woman candidate from the BJP, Geeta Rathwa, contesting from the tribal seat of Chhota Udepur in central Gujarat, was leading by more than one lakh votes. BJP's Ahmedabad West candidate Kirit Solanki, Mohanbhai Kundaria from Rajkot, Bhartiben Shiyal from Bhavnagar, Mitesh Patel from Anand, Mansukhbhai Vasava from Bharuch, Parbhubhai Vasava from Bardoli, Darshnaben Jardosh from Surat, C.R. Patil from Navsari and K.C. Patel from Valsad were all leading by over one lakh votes after the 10th round of counting.

The only saving grace for the Congress appears to be in the Amreli Lok Sabha constituency in Saurashtra where leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani was trailing by a narrow margin against Naran Kachhadiya of the BJP.

The BJP had bagged all the 26 seats in the 2014 general elections when as many as 64.7 per cent voters exercised their franchise while this time the polling percentage was 64.11.

Besides the Lok Sabha seats, counting of votes was also being held in four Assembly constituencies where by-elections were conducted on April 23 during the third phase of the seven-phased parliamentary elections. There are 28 counting centres for these seats.