The first phase of the Gujarat assembly elections starts today. Much is at stake for all the major parties in the fray. Gujarat being the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for BJP it is a question of prestige. The 2022 Gujarat elections are also extremely important for BJP and Narendra Modi in view of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections where the ruling party will make a bid to return to power for the third time.
788 candidates from various parties will fight it out in a never-before triangular contest on 89 out of 182 seats. Normally witnessing a duel between Congress and BJP, Gujarat provides turf to Kejriwal’s AAP to test its mettle.
The first phase of voting has commenced at 25430 polling stations in 19 districts of the state. In the first phase, 2,39,76,670 voters will exercise their franchise till 5 pm.
The five seats in Jamnagar city and district promise a spectacular fight. Most interesting among them is the Jamnagar North seat where Rivaba Jadeja, wife of ace cricketer Ravindra Jadeja is contesting on a BJP ticket against Bipendrasinh Jadeja of INC and Vishal Tyagi of AAP. Curiously, not only Ravindra Jadeja’s sister is campaigning for the Congress candidate, but Ravindra Jadeja’s father too has lent his vocal support to the rival candidate.
Other seats are Jamnagar South, Jamjodhpur, Jamnagar Rural, and Kalavad, which is a seat reserved for SC. During the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP could not win any seats except two within the city. All three remaining seats were won by Congress.
| Constituency No | Constituency Name | Electors | Electors 2017 | Voting percentage 2017 | Voting percentage BJP | Voting Percentage INC | Margin | Winner |
| 76 | Kalavad (SC) | 230775 | 215156 | 61.49% | 34.12% | 59.02% | 32951 | INC |
| 77 | Jamnagar Rural | 248463 | 223516 | 66.65% | 43.20% | 47.49% | 6397 | INC |
| 78 | Jamnagar North | 259378 | 218785 | 66.19% | 58.23% | 29.94% | 40963 | BJP |
| 79 | Jamnagar South | 228317 | 206582 | 65.02% | 53.40% | 41.22% | 16349 | BJP |
| 80 | Jamjodhpur | 224204 | 205251 | 66.47% | 45.22% | 47.07% | 2518 | INC |
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