'Gujarat was with BJP, will continue to be with them': Rivaba Jadeja as party set to form govt for seventh straight term

Gujarat Assembly election results 2022: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday (December 8, 2022) look set to a record massive victory in Gujarat, party leader Rivaba Jadeja said that the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "with the party" and "will continue to be with them". Rivaba, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, who won from the Jamnagar (North) seat on a BJP ticket, also praised the party for the work it did in the last 27 years.

"The manner in which BJP worked in Gujarat for last 27 years and established the Gujarat model, people believed they want to take forward the development journey with only BJP," she told reporters.

"Gujarat was with BJP and will continue to be with them," Rivaba added.

Rivaba, who contested against AAP's Ahir Karshanbhai Parbatbhai Karmur and Congress' Bipendrasinh Jadeja, won by more than 30,000 votes.

Gujarat Assembly Election Results: BJP headed for a massive victory

Meanwhile, the BJP appeared headed for a record victory in Gujarat as trends available after several rounds of voting showed the party was leading in 155 of the state's 182 assembly seats that went to polls earlier this month. The Congress party was seen finishing a distant second, with leads in 18 seats, while the Aam Aadmi party was leading in 6 seats. Others, including an independent candidate, were ahead in 3 seats.

BJP has so far received 53 per cent of the votes counted, while Congress had 27 per cent and AAP 13 per cent.

If the trends continued through the day, the BJP would not only beat its best showing to date -- 127 seats in 2002 -- but also surpass the all-time record set by the Congress party in 1985, when it won 149 seats under the leadership of late Madhavsinh Solanki. In winning for a seventh term, the party would also equal the Left Front's feat in West Bengal.

The BJP, notably, has not lost an election in Gujarat since 1995.

(With agency inputs)