Gujarat's 5 hot seats and who won them

The Gujarat assembly elections saw a stunning verdict, with the ruling party BJP breaking all records by getting 156 out of 182 assembly seats. This is the highest tally ever for the party, even surpassing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's record when BJP won 127 seats in 2002. The main opposition party Congress, which got 76 seats in 2017, has been decimated to 17 seats. The third player, AAP, got a considerable vote share but ended up with only five seats. 

The BJP also saw a jump in the vote share as it received 52% of the total votes compared to 28% of Congress and 13% of AAP. In 2017, BJP received 49.09% votes and Congress got 41.44%. 

Though the BJP High Command dropped a large number of sitting MLAs and fielded some newcomers, it had a comprehensive win in the election.

Here are Gujarat's 5 hot seats and their respective winners:

1. Morbi: The Morbi seat was in the spotlight in Gujarat elections as a tragic bridge collapse here led to the death of 141 people on October 30, 2022.

• From here, Kantibhai Amrutiya, a five-time BJP MLA, has won the election against Congress's Jayantilal Patel by a margin of over 62,000 votes.
• The BJP had dropped its sitting MLA Brijesh Mishra , who was a former Congress leader and also a minister in the current BJP government.

2. Vadgam: From the Vadgam seat, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani was contesting on a Congress ticket against BJP's Manibhai Jethabhai Vaghela. Mevani won the seat with 48% votes, getting 94,765 votes against BJP's Manibhai Vaghela who got nearly 89,837 votes. 

• This was the same seat from where Mevani had contested in 2017 as an independent candidate. Manibhai Vaghela, back then, was the sitting Congress MLA who was asked to withdraw his candidature to let Mevani win.
• In 2022, Vaghela shook hands with the BJP but lost. 

3. Jamnagar North: From Jamnagar North, cricketer Ravindra Jadeja's wife Riva has scored a historic debut win on a BJP ticket, bagging 57.79% of the votes.  

• Riva got 88,835 votes against Congress's Bipendrasinh Chatursinh Jadeja who ended up with a mere 15% votes, 23,274. 
• Instead, the AAP candidate, Karshanbhai Karmur, stood at the second spot with 35,265 votes: ie, 22.94% of the votes.
• From the Jamnagar seat, while Jadeja's wife was contesting on a BJP ticket, his sister and father were campaigning for the Congress candidate. 

4. Jam Khambalia: This was another high-profile seat in the Gujarat election from where AAP's CM candidate Isudhan Gadhvi was expected to win but he ended up losing to BJP's Ayar Mulubhai Hardasbhai Bera by a margin of 18,745 votes.

• The contest turned into a triple fight as the Congress candidate, Ahir Vikrambhai Arjanbhai Maadam, pulled nearly 23.53 % of the votes: 44,715.
• Isudan Gadhvi received 40.96% of the votes: 59,089. Gadhvi in the initial trends was leading on this seat but he was later outpaced by the BJP candidate.

5. Viramgam: Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who was the face of the Patidar agitation during the Gujarat 2017 elections, won this seat on a BJP ticket.

• The Patidar leader got 49.64% of the votes: 99,155. 
• AAP's Amarsinh Anadaji Thakor stood on the second spot with 23.75% votes while Congress's Bharwad Lakhabhai Bhikhabhai  got 21.39% votes.