Gujarat elections: CM Bhupendra Patel wins from Ghatlodia

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Thursday won a second consecutive victory from the urban constituency of Ghatlodia with a margin of 1.92 lakh.

The BJP has already announced that Patel will retain the post of chief minister.

Patel got 2,12,480 votes, against 21,120 votes polled by his Congress rival Amiben Yagnik. AAP candidate Vijay Patel was in the third place with 15,902 votes.

Patidar-dominated Ghatlodia seat, which is part of the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, has given Gujarat two chief ministers — Bhupendra Patel and Anandiben Patel. It is a stronghold of the BJP.

In 2017, despite the Patidar quota agitation which made things difficult for the ruling party, Bhupendra Patel had won the seat with a margin of 1.17 lakh votes. Ghatlodia, which has around 3.70 lakh registered voters, was carved out as an assembly constituency following delimitation in 2012. Earlier, it was a part of Sarkhej constituency.

In 2012, Anandiben Patel had won the seat with a margin of more than 1.1 lakh.

Against the incumbent chief minister, the Congress fielded noted lawyer and activist Amiben Yagnik whose door-to-door campaign focussed on price rise, unemployment and alleged corruption. Besides Patidars, the other dominant social group in the constituency is the Rabaris, who are classified as OBC. The community’s votes are mostly split between the Congress and BJP.