Gujarat Assembly elections 2022: BJP candidate and incumbent Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel won the Ghatlodia seat by a record margin. He defeated Congress candidate Dr Amee Yajnik by a huge margin of 1,92,263 votes.
This seat came into existence after the delimitation in 2008 and falls under the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. The seat was of much significance as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had once again fielded incumbent chief minister Bhupendra Patel from the constituency.
He became the second leader to contest from this seat as a chief minister after Anandiben Patel. Ghatlodia seat came into being after being carved out from the Sarkhej Assembly constituency after the delimitation.
ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2022: FULL COVERAGE
Major candidates in the fray
CM Patel was up against Amee Yajnik of Congress and Vijay Patel of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Ghatlodia is regarded as the BJP's bastion and has never been an easy territory for Congress.
The grand-old party also suffered a humiliating loss in 2012 when Rameshbhai Patel contested against the then chief minister Anandiben.
A look at the 2017 Assembly elections
In the last assembly elections, BJP leader and incumbent CM Bhupendra Patel handed a massive defeat to his rival and Congress candidate Shashikant Bhurabhai by a margin of 1,17,750 votes. The constituency had recorded a voter turnout of 68.71% in 2017.
Voters' factbook
Out of a total population of 3,56,845 in the constituency, the 2011 census estimates 98.01% to be urban and 1.99% rural.
The ratio of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) to the total population are 2.85 and 0.43, respectively.
Notably, the constituency has a sizable number of Patidar voters. The polling in Ghatlodia was held on December 5, while the counting of votes took place on December 8, 2022.