Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Trailing In Prestige Seat

New Delhi:  Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was trailing on Monday as votes were counted in the state assembly election.

Mr Rupani, Chief Minister since August last year, was behind his Congress rival Indranil Rajguru in Rajkot West.

Mr Rupani is the first Chief Minister since Narendra Modi to face elections in Gujarat.

Rajkot West is a prestige seat for the BJP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested the first-ever election of his life from this constituency and won.

Rajkot is the financial nerve-centre of the Saurashtra region, where the Congress is seen to have made big gains.

There are 75,000 Patidar votes in the constituency; the community, which is aggressively campaigning for quota in government jobs and education, has been upset with the BJP and its biggest face Hardik Patel is supporting the Congress.

Elections for the 182-seat Gujarat assembly were held on December 9 and 14, after a bitter campaign in which PM Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi traded barbs.