Gujarat assembly seat Gandhinagar North constituency in Gandhinagar district has been an active battleground of ruling BJP and Congress. The constituency, which went to polls on December 5, is part of Gandhinagar district. Gandhinagar is the capital city of Gujarat and is one of the model planned cities in the country. Top BJP leaders L K Advani, Shankersinh Vaghela, and Amit Shah were elected from this seat in Lok Sabha. The constituency, Gandhinagar North, was carved out after the 2008 delimitation and has a total of 4.91 crore voters.
Contesting candidates
The BJP has fielded Ritaben Patel from Gandhinagar North, while Congress has chosen Virendrasinh Mafatsinh Vaghela. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has chosen Mukesh Patel for its maiden elections in the state.
Mahendrabhai Patni, a labourer, 35, filed his nomination as an Independent candidate from the Gandhinagar North seat. He carried two sacks of Re 1 coins to file his nomination fee of Rs 10,000 at the Election Commission office.
Congress vs BJP
In the 2012 Assembly elections, BJP won the seat with a thin margin. Party leader Ashok Patel defeated the Congress candidate by 4,000 votes. In 2017 polls, Congress worked its magic and its candidate C J Chavda defeated Patel with a narrow margin of 4,700 votes. Chavda got 78,206 votes. Congress candidate Patel could manage a total of 73,432 votes, as per ECI data.
Gujarat elections
As per the data made available by the Election Commission, there are a total of 1,621 candidates who contested for the Gujarat assembly elections held on December 1 and 5. Of them, 139 are women candidates.
The BJP has won every state assembly election in Gujarat since 1995. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself held the post of chief minister for over 12 years, from 2001. Bhupendra Patel is the incumbent chief minister, who has been fielded by the party from the Ghatlodia seat.