Exit Poll 2019 Gujarat: Can BJP again clean sweep PM Modi's home state? Here is what exit polls say
In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, the BJP made a clean sweep in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
As the most exit polls on Sunday forecast another term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, good news also came for the BJP from Gujarat where the party is likely to retain most of the 26 seats it won in 2014.
Gujarat was one of the states which the BJP had swept in 2014 Lok Sabha elections with the party winning all 26 seats.
After closing of polls in the seventh phase of general elections on Sunday, exit poll projections were telecast by media outlets with some of them projecting that BJP-led NDA will get more than 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha.
In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, projections showed that the BJP is winning 25-26 seats.
Here is what different pollsters have projected in Gujarat:
All 26 seats in Gujarat went to polls in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 23. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state clocked an all-time high turnout of 64.11 per cent, higher than the 63.77 per cent recorded in 1967 and 63.66 per cent five years ago.
A total of 371 candidates are in the fray for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat. While Gujarat traditionally has seen straight fights between the BJP and the Congress, several smaller parties too are in the running this time.
The newly formed Hindusthan Nirman Dal of former VHP leader Pravin Togadia has also fielded its candidate, Amrish Patel, from the Gandhinagar seat.
Bharatiya Tribal Party MLA Chhotu Vasava is contesting from Bharuch where BJP MP Mansukh Vasava and the Congress' Sher Khan Pathan are also in the fray.
All 26 seats from the state were won by the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It has dropped 10 sitting MPs for the April-May general polls.
The seats where sitting BJP MPs have been replaced are Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad East, Surendranagar, Porbandar, Anand, Panchmahal and Chhota Udepur.
In Gandhinagar, BJP patriarch LK Advani has been replaced with party chief Amit Shah, who will take on Congress MLA CJ Chavda and 15 other contestants.
Here is what different pollsters predict for the BJP and the Congress in Gujarat:
News 18-IPSOS: BJP: 25-26, Congress: 0-1News 24-Today's Chanakya: BJP: 24-26, Congress: 0-2India Today-Axis My India: BJP: 25-26, Congress: 0-1ABP News-Nielsen: BJP-24, Congress-2CVoter-Republic: BJP-22, Congress-4India TV-CNX: BJP-22, Congress-4Republic- Jan Ki Baat: BJP: 22-23, Congress: 3-4Times Now: BJP: 23, Congress: 3