Gujarat Election results 2022: BJP MLA Sangita Patil records third straight win in Surat’s Limbayat seat

Gujarat Election results 2022: BJP MLA Sangita Patil on Thursday (December 8) won from Surat’s Marathi and Muslim-dominated Limbayat constituency for the third consecutive term, defeating her nearest rival, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Pankaj Tayede, by over 58,000 votes. Congress party’s candidate, Gopalbhai Devidas Patil, was placed third.

The battle of ballots in Limbayat assembly turned interesting curious when the BJP named Sangita Patil as its candidate from the seat despite strong anti-incumbency. As Patil, a prodigy of CR Paatil, BJP’s state president in Gujarat, sought re-election as many as 44 independent candidates, mostly Muslims, joined the race.

Gujarat Assembly Election 2022: Full Coverage

Marathi migrants constitute the biggest chuck of voters among Limbayat’s 2.5-lakh electorate, followed by a sizeable number of Muslims. Migrant workers from Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana also play a role in any electoral outcomes in Limbayat.

The poor handling of migrants during the Covid-19 pandemic, worsening law and order and lack of adequate civic amenities were among issues that contributed to a strong wave of anti-incumbency.  The results on Thursday, however, showed that Patil had succeeded to overcome anti-incumbency.

The Limbayat Assembly Constituency falls under the Navsari Lok sabha constituency. In the 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly Election, there were 16 candidates in the fray from the Limbayat constituency. Limbayat was one of 99 seats won by the Bharatiya Janata Party. BJP's Sangitaben Rajendrabhai Patil won the election upstaging Congress’s Ravindra Suklal Patil by a margin of around 31,951 votes.

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91.5% of the total votes were cast for the top two candidates. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Patil Sangitaben Rajendrabhai got a total of 93,585 votes, while Congress’s Ravindra Suklal Patil got 61,634 votes. Nationalist Congress Party’s candidate Akram Vahidulla Ansari grabbed 5,132 votes to finish in third place. The top three parties secured 55.2%, 36.3% and 3.0% respectively.

BJP's Sangita Patil has been winning from here since 2012. The seat falls under Gujarat BJP chief CR Paatil's Navsari Lok Sabha constituency. It has a sizable Muslim population and Sangita Patil demanded the imposition of Disturbed Areas Act in Limbayat to prevent ghettoization.

Interestingly, the highest number of independents candidates-34-are in Limbayat seat in Surat district from where 44 candidates contested elections.

Assembly Election 2022: Full Coverage