Gujarat Elections Results: here's how the heavyweights are faring

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and Patidar leader Hardik Patel was locked in a neck-and-neck contest with Amarsinh Thakor of the Aam Aadmi Party in urban Viramgram assembly, early trends showed.

After trailing for a while, Patel had taken slender lead of 2,371 votes over Thakor at the end of four rounds of counting. Vote count in favour of Patel stood at 14,304 votes, compared to 11,933 votes for Thakor. The sitting MLA of Viramgram, who hails from Congress party, was seen coming a distant third, with 3,921 votes in his bag.

A native of Chandranagar village in Viramgam taluka, Hardik Patel was born and brought up in Viramgam town. He shot into prominence following the 2015 Patidar agitation for reservation in jobs, which he led. That agitation was widely credited for an impressive performance by the Congress party in 2017.

Meanwhile, Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel on Thursday headed for a second straight win from the urban constituency of Ghatlodia, where he had taken a comfortable lead of almost 20,000 votes over his nearest rival after five rounds of vote counting.

As per the latest update from the Election Commission, Patel had polled 23,713 votes, compared to 3,840 votes polled by his Congress rival Amiben Yagnik. AAP candidate Vijay Patel was running third with 2,168 votes.

Isudan Gadhvi, the Aam Aadmi Party’s CM face in Gujarat, on Thursday took an early lead over Congress party’s sitting MLA from Khambhalia, Vikram Madam, while BJP’s Mulubhai Bera was seen finishing third.

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After four rounds of voting in the assembly polls, Gadhvi had polled 13,658 votes, compared to 9,889 votes polled by incumbent Madam. BJP’s Bera had picked up 5,703 votes, according to the latest update available from the Election Commission.