Gujarat election 2017: Here are the top 10 things to know about the results

The Gujarat elections brought Bharatiya Janata Party back to power in the state for the sixth time in a row. The BJP won 99 seats in the 182-member assembly while the Congress won 77 seats. 

It is the first time in 22 years that the BJP has ruled Gujarat that its tally has fallen below 99. In the 2012 elections, the BJP had won 115 seats while the Congress had won 61 seats.

Here are some striking takeaways from Gujarat election results:

1 Biggest victory margin: 
The Ghatlodia seat in Gujarat saw a victory margin 1,17,750 votes. BJP leader Patel Bhupendrabhai Rajnikant won 1,75,652 votes defeating his nearest rival from Congress Patel Shashikant who got 57,902 votes.

2 Smallest victory margin: 
On the Kaprada seat in Gujarat, Congress candidate Jitubhai Harjibhai Chaudhari won with a very slim margin of 170 votes. He defeated the BJP’s Madhubhai Bapubhai Raut. Chaudhari bagged 93,000 votes while Raut won 92,830 votes.

3 NOTA emerges third largest vote getter
Over 5.5 lakh voters opted for the NOTA (none of the above) button in the polls. In Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's Rajkot West seat, the NOTA votes were more than 3,300, while the same in Vadgam (where Congress-supported independent Jignesh Mevani won) were over 4,200. In Godhra also, NOTA counted over 3,000. In percentage terms, 1.8 percent voters in Gujarat pressed the NOTA button.

4. Victory margin of less than 1,000 
There was a close contest in at least seven seats in Gujarat with a victory margin of less than 1000 votes. In Botad the BJP won by 906 votes; In Mansa, Congress won by 524 votes; In Kaprada, Congress won by 170 votes; In Dangs, Congress won by 768 votes; In Deodar, Congress won by 972 votes; In Dholka, Congress won by 327 votes; In Godhra, BJP won by 258 votes. 

5 Bharatiya Tribal Party opens account
The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) was launched less than a month back. But it has managed to win two seats in the 2017 Gujarat polls. The party's founder Chhotubhai Vasava, a well-known tribal leader, won with a margin of 48,948 votes defeating BJP's Ravjibhai Ishvarbhai Vasava.

6. BJP ministers who lost to Congress candidates
Five BJP ministers lost the Assembly polls to Congress candidates. The ministers who lost are Parmar from Gadhada (SC) seat and Sapariya in Jamjodhpur constituency. Shankar Chaudhary, Keshaji Chauhan, and Shabdsharan Tadvi also failed to retain their respective seats in Vav, Deodar, and Nandod.

7.  BJP wins lesser votes than 2012 but vote share increased 
The BJP won 99 seats, way less than its figure in 2012, but the party managed to raise its vote share to its second highest ever. Its vote share rose from 47.85% to 49.1%.

8. Congress vote share also increased 
The Congress won 61 seats in 2012 and got a vote share of 39 per cent. It won 41.4 per cent of the votes in 2017 and got 77 seats.

9. Voters in 2017 were 84 lakh lesser than 2012
The number of people who voted dropped by almost 84 lakh as compared to those in the 2012 polls.

10. The importance of Ahmedabad
The party which wins in Ahmedabad, wins the overall state. This is a tradition that is being followed since the state was forced in 1962. From 1962 to 1985 elections, the seat was won by Congress and the party was in power too. From 1990, it is the BJP which is winning the seat and has been the ruling party in the state too.