12.03 am: BJP activists celebrate in Hyderabad as the party is leading in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Photo: G Ramakrishna

11.53 am: The BJP said the poll trends in its favour indicated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity was intact in his home state Gujarat. Read more

11.49 am: According to the ECI website, BJP’s Babubhai Bokhiriya wins Porbandar Assembly seat defeating Congress’ Arjun Modhvadia by a margin of 1,855 votes.

11.44 am: Ashok Gehlot, the Congress election in-charge for Gujarat, said Rahul Gandhi ran a nice campaign in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Read more

11.42 am: “Development is the mantra of today’s polity. And therefore people are with Modiji,” Human Resources Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters.

11.37 am: Markets staged a smart recovery from the opening low as Prime Minister Narendra Modi today flashed a victory sign.

11.31 am: According to ECI website, BJP is leading in 101 seats and Congress is ahead in 73 constituencies.

11.26 am: Shiv Sena heaped praise on Rahul Gandhi for “fighting the Gujarat poll battle without bothering about the result”.Read more

11.18 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi flashed a victory sign after he arrived in Parliament, as the BJP pulled ahead of the Congress in trends for the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly polls.

(Prime Minister Narendra Modi flashes victory sign. Photo credit: Kamal Narang)

10.54 am: The BJP today appeared to be on its way to retain power in the state, with trends from 175 out of 182 Assembly seats giving it a lead in 100 seats while the Congress was following with 70.

The NCP was leading in one seat and the Bhartiya Tribal Party in two seats. Two Independents were also leading.

10.51 am: Trends very clear, we will form government in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, says senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh. Read more

10.18 am: Markets recovered from the opening low as latest official figures from the Election Commission showed the BJP leading in 106 seats and the Congress in 71 constituencies.

10.11 am: BJP is ahead in 106 seats while Congress is leading in 71 seats

10.09 am: BJP Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who was earlier trailing after the count of postal ballots, is now leading in over Congress’ Indranil Rajyaguru in Rajkot West seat.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel is trailing from Mehsana against Congress candidate Jivabhai Patel by 3,000 votes.

Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia is trailing in Porbandar by just 50 votes after counting of three rounds, against BJP leader and fisheries minister Babubhai Bokhiriya.

Congress’ Alpesh Thakor is leading in Radhanpur seat against Lavingji Thakor of BJP.

Senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil is trailing against BJP’s Virendrasinh Jadeja from Mandvi seat.

State BJP chief Jitu Vaghani is leading over Dilipsinh Gohil of Congress in Bhavnagar West.

10.08 am: Election Commission figures show the NCP, Bhartiya Tribal Party and an independent candidate are leading in five seats together.

9.55 am: BJP takes a slight lead, ahead in 103 seats while Congress leads in 75 constituencies

9.49 am: Around 1.9% NOTA votes registered according to the ECI website

9.41 am: NCP leads on 1, Bhartiya Tribal Party 1 and independent on 1, as per trends available.

9.36 am: Markets crashed after early trends of Gujarat Assembly election results. At 9.20 a.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 477.70 points at 32,985.27 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 156.30 points at 10,176.95.

9.34 am: BJP leads in 99 constituencies and Congress in 78 seats as the margin slightly increases.

9.26 am: BJP leads in 92 seats and Congress in 83 constituencies.

9.20 am: Neck and neck contest with BJP leading in 86 seats and Congress in 84

9.14 am: Indranil Rajyaguru of Congress is leading over BJP leader and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Rajkot West after first round of counting. Rajyaguru secured 1,258 votes while Rupani got 491 votes after the end of first round of counting, as per election officials at the counting centre.

9.08 am: BJP is leading in 81 seats while Congress in 71

8.48 am: Trends show BJP leading in 47 and Congress in 40 constituencies

8.42 am: BJP takes lead in 43 setas while Congress is leading in 22 seats

8.40 am: Chief Election Commissioner A K Joti has reiterated that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) are safe and cannot be tampered with.

8.30 am: Early trends: BJP leading in 25 seats and Congress in 13

8.22 am: BJP leading in 18 seats while Congress in 6

8.15 am: Early trends show BJP leading in 14 seats and Congress in 4

8:00 am: Counting for the Assembly elections in Gujarat begins. The counting of votes will be held at 37 centres across the state’s 33 districts. The exit polls on Thursday predicted a clear majority for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

(PTI graphic)

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.

Key contestants

The main contestants from the BJP are Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani (Rajkot West), Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel (Mehsana) and state BJP unit president Jitu Vaghani (Bhavnagar West).

The main contenders from the Congress are Shaktisinh Gohil (Mandvi), Arjun Modhvadia (Porbandar), Siddharth Patel (Dabhoi), and Paresh Dhanai (Amreli).

OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, who joined the Congress ahead of polls is fighting from Radhanpur seat, while Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani is contesting from Vadgam.

The Election Commission last night withdrew notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his TV interviews during Gujarat polls, and said it will revisit a provision in the election law under which it was issued.

Also read: Omissions of the Commissions

For the 182 seats up for grabs, a total of 1,828 candidates contested the elections which were held in two phases on December 9 and 14.

In the first phase of polls held on December 9 for 89 seats, 66.75 per cent voting was recorded. The total voter turnout this time has seen a dip of 2.91 per cent compared to the 2012 polls when 71.32 per cent polling was registered. In terms of numbers, of the total 4.35 crore registered voters, 2.97 crore exercised their right to franchise in the elections held on December 9 and 14.