With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set to retain Gujarat for the sixth consecutive term, the gap between its vote share and that of the Congress has been continuously shrinking.
In the current elections, the BJP’s vote share, as per the official figures by Election Commission of India at 13:30 pm, is 48.5 per cent, whereas that of the Congress is 41.5 per cent – a difference of 7 per cent.
The remaining vote share of Gujarat Assembly elections 2017 is as follows: IND (6.5 per cent), CPM (1.7 per cent), BSP (0.5 per cent) and NOTA (0.9 per cent)
In the 2012 Assembly elections, the BJP’s vote share was 47.9 per cent against Congress’ 38.9, the difference being 9 per cent.
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Compared to 2007 results, BJP’s vote share in 2012 was down by 0.49 per cent, and 2.49 per cent in 2017. In 2007, the saffron party’s vote share was 49.12 per cent against 39.63 per cent of the Congress, the gap being 9.49 per cent.
So far, the highest difference in vote shares of the BJP and the Congress was 10.4 per cent in 2002, when polls were held in the aftermath of post-Godhra riots. The BJP's vote share then stood at 49.85 per cent, its highest ever during its over 22-year rule in Gujarat.
When the saffron party came to power in Gujarat for the first time in 1995 under the leadership of Keshubhai Patel, it polled 42.45 per cent of the total votes cast, which was 9.46 per cent more than the Congress.
