By IANS
Ahmedabad : Gujarat’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday led the race to retain control the state assembly but the Congress was making major gains, officials counting millions of votes said.
The BJP was leading in 65 of the 122 constituencies where counting trends were available, losing nearly 22 seats that it had swept in the 2002 elections, the officials said.
The BJP losses were dominantly coming from Central Gujarat but it appeared to have beaten back the challenge of dissidents within in the sprawling region of Saurashtra.
The Congress, which is determined to unseat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, was in the lead in 55 seats by retaining most of the constituencies it won in 2002 and making significant gains elsewhere.
Smaller parties including the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were ahead in two constituencies.
The counting started at 37 centres at 8.00 a.m. across the state amid tight security. A total of 7,700 officials were involved.
Both the BJP and the Congress party have said they hoped to win the electoral battle.
Exit polls conducted after the final round of polling Dec 16 had predicted a thin majority for Modi.
According to CNN-IBN, the BJP is tipped to win 92-100 seats to the Congress’ 77-85 while NDTV gave the ruling party 90-110 seats compared to 70-95 for the Congress.