With polling of votes for the Gujarat assembly elections drawing to a close on Sunday, exit poll results indicate that Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party is set to regain power in the state.
According to an exit poll conducted by Indian Express-CNN-IBN-Divya Bhaskar, the BJP, which won 127 seats in 2002, will win 92-100 seats and secure a clear majority in the 182-member assembly.
Meanwhile, the Congress is expected to improve its tally from 51 seats in 2002 to 77-85 seats this time, the poll said, adding that the Bahujan Samaj Party and other rebels could split the votes of the main parties.
Though the Congress would not be able to make a dent in BJP's chances of regaining power, the poll indicated that Congress had managed to gain some ground in Saurashtra.
A similar projection was put forth by the NDTV-GfK Mode exit poll.
The poll predicted that BJP will manage to hold on to power and notch up around 90-110 seats.
It added that the Congress is expected to win about 70-95 seats, a clear gain of over 19 seats from the 51 it won in the 2002 assembly polls.
The common aspect that came across various exit polls was fall in vote-share of the saffron party.
The NDTV poll suggested that there was a four per cent swing of Patel votes away from the BJP in the phase two, as compared to eight per cent in phase one. The party also lost an estimated 13 per cent of tribal votes in this election.
The Star News-Nielsen exit poll saw BJP getting 103, losing about 24 seats of which a loss of 18 is in Sunday's phase in Central and Northern Gujarat. In the 2002 elections, in these regions, the party had swept winning 73 of the 95 seats at stake.
The Congress may get 76 seats, a gain of 25 seats, it said.
Zee News and C-Voter projected BJP getting 93 to 104 seats followed by Congress at 75 to 87 seats. It gave saffron party a total vote share of about 48 per cent and Congress 45 per cent while the Star News exit poll projected that BJP will get 46.5 per cent votes while the Congress will secure 43.5 per cent.
In Sunday's phase, the Star News exit poll projected BJP getting 55 seats and Congress 39. The BJP and Congress had got 73 and 21 respectively in 2002.
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