Saurashtra Kutch Gujarat Elections Results LIVE UPDATE: Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani trailing

Saurashtra Kutch Gujarat Elections Results 2017 LIVE: Aggressive campaign by Hardik Patel has made a dent in BJP's vote base here.

Saurashtra Kutch Gujarat Elections Results 2017: Today, counting of votes is taking place for the two phased Gujarat Assembly Elections 2017 that ended on Thursday. The fate of all candidates will be revealed by evening and who is chosen by the voters and who is dumped, we all come to know about. Two important regions of Gujarat are Kutch and Saurashtra. With the population of 2,092,371 and covering an area of 45,674 km², Kutch is the largest district of India. It has 10 Talukas, 939 villages and 6 Municipalities. If we talk about Saurashtra, it covers about a third of Gujarat state, notably 11 districts of Gujarat, including Rajkot district. Saurashtra-Kutch Gujarat Elections Results 2017 LIVE UPDATE:

• In Rajkot, BJP ahead in 2 seats
• Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel trailing
• According to early trends, BJP needs only nine seats for forming majority government in Gujarat
• In Saurashtra-Kutch Congress ahead in 23 seats
• In Saurashtra-Kutch Congress ahead in 14 seats
• BJP ahead in 1 seat in Rajkot
• Congress ahead in Saurashtra
• "I assure you that there can be no tampering with the EVMs" says Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AK Joti
• Now Congress ahead in Saurashtra
• BJP ahead in early trend
• Counting of votes begin

Gujarat: Visuals from Election Commission's webcasting control room in Gandhinagar. EC has installed a total of 1251 cameras across 37 counting centres in the state. pic.twitter.com/CfV4y7YUM3

— ANI (@ANI) December 18, 2017

• Vijay Rupani confident of bagging more than two-third seats
• Counting of votes to take place from 8 am

Saurashtra has seven districts (Porbandar, Amreli, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Surendranagar and Rajkot) and 48 Seats. In 2012, the BJP won 33 seats from Saurashtra region. The BJP dominated Kutch region too. Party won five of six seats. However, the saffron party is facing strong challenge this time in both Saurashtra and Kutch region. Patidar factor Patidars dominate Saurashtra and aggressive campaign by Hardik Patel has made a dent in BJP's vote base. Patels constitute 12 per cent of Gujarat's population and they can swing election results in Saurashtra. Patidars have been agitating against the ruling BJP government for past two years demanding reservation not only in government jobs and but also college admissions. Issues like shortage of drinking water and presence of sizeable Muslim population in Kutch region make the electoral battle tougher for the ruling state government.