NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP appeared set to sweep the Gujarat assembly polls and win the highest number of seats ever in the state as early trends indicated it was leading in over 145 constituencies followed by Congress as a distant second with 26. The AAP was leading on 6 seats.

The Bhartiya Janata Party seems set to retain power in Gujarat for the 7 consecutive and equal the record of the Left government in West Bengal that ruled for 7 terms.

The BJP was in the lead on 42 out of 54 seats in Saurashtra-Kutch. The party took 23 seats from this area in 2017. The BJP was in the lead on 55 of the 65 seats in South Gujarat.

Chief minister Bhupendra Patel was ahead of nearest challenger Amee Yagnik of the Congress from Ghatlodia by more than 14,000 votes. Around 9.30 p.m., trends indicated that Harsh Sanghavi, the home minister in the departing Cabinet, was in the lead with 8,000 votes from Majura.

Notably, in 2002, the BJP won the highest tally of 127 seats when Narendra Modi was the chief minister. The highest-ever number of seats any party has won was 149 under the leadership of Congress chief minister Madhavsinh Solanki in 1985.

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