Gujarat polls: most former Congress leaders win on BJP ticket

Most former Congress leaders who switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to win in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections.

Besides former state Congress working president Hardik Patel, the BJP had fielded 12 former Congress MLAs along with the son of a former Congress legislator.

Of these 14, all but three won the election on Thursday.

In at least three cases, their direct challengers were candidates of the new entrant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and those from the Congress.

In some cases, their victory was aided by a split in votes between the AAP and Congress, data provided by the Election Commission shows.

Harshad Ribadiya, a former Congressman who joined the BJP, was defeated by AAP's Bhupendra Bhayani in Visavadar.

Jawahar Chavda, who had resigned as Congress MLA in March 2019 and won the subsequent byelection on BJP ticket, was defeated on his home turf of Manavadar by Congress's Arvind Ladani by around 3,000 votes.

But these were exceptions.

Otherwise, former Patidar agitation leader Hardik Patel won from Viramgam as a BJP candidate. Patel defeated AAP's Amarsinh Thakor by more than 51,000 votes.

Alpesh Thakor, who had resigned as Congress MLA from Radhanpur seat in 2019 but was defeated in the byelection, managed to win from Gandhinagar South this time by a comfortable margin of more than 33,000 votes.