North Gujarat Elections Results LIVE UPDATES: BJP leads in 34 seats, Cong in 18

North Gujarat Elections Results LIVE UPDATES

AHMEDABAD: The counting of votes for the Gujarat Assembly polls  began at 8 am on  Monday. While the BJP is seeking a sixth straight term in office, the Congress is aiming to stage a comeback in power after being in the opposition for over two decades. North Gujarat region includes six districts: Gandhinagar, Banaskantha, Aravalli, Mehsana, Patan and Sabarkantha. Farmers, Patidars, OBCs and tribals constitute the majority population of the region, where the total number of constituencies are 32. The Congress has a stronger hold in the North Gujarat region as compared to the BJP. In 2012, the grand old party has won 17 seats out of 32. Live Updates:

• BJP leads in 29 seats and Congress gets 24 seats in North Gujarat's early trends
• Nitin Patel behind Congress from his Mehsana seat
• During the campaign, Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah trained guns on the Congress on issues like Ram Temple, alleged Pakistani interference in the Gujarat polls and (suspended Congress leader) Mani Shankar Aiyar's remarks.
• Rahul Gandhi persistently attacked Modi and the BJP for "not talking about the future of Gujarat" and skipping key issues being faced by the people of the state.
• The Congress also stitched about a broad social coalition with prominent Patidar, OBC, and Dalit leaders - Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jigesh Mevani - in its bid to unseat the BJP in power for over two decades.
• Patel led a long agitation of his community for reservation, while Thakor led an counter protest against inclusion of Patidars in the OBC reservation list. Mevani raised his voice against Dalit atrocities.
• The influential Patidar community, which accounts for around 12 per cent of the state's population, could prove to be the 'X factor' in the polls in which Patel pledged support to the Congress and appealed to people to "uproot the BJP" this time.

District-wise constituencies: Gandhinagar – 5 assembly seats (Congress – 3, BJP – 2 seats); 48 candidates Banaskantha – 9 assembly seats (Congress – 5 seats, BJP – 4 seats); 70 candidates Arvalli – 3 assembly seats (Congress – 3, BJP – 0); 21 candidates Mahesana – 7 assembly seats (BJP – 5, Congress – 2); 100 candidates Patan – 4 assembly seats (BJP – 3 seats, Congress – 1 seat); 54 candidates Sabarkantha – 4 assembly seats (BJP – 1 seat, Congress – 3 seats); 37 candidates