The Congress party, which aims to reverse its fortunes in Gujarat and is targeting to win 6-9 Lok Sabha seats in the state, faces an uphill task in central Gujarat. While Rival BJP is the favourite to win three of the six seats in the region, the Congress has its nose ahead in just one.

The BJP is expected to win Vadodara, Kheda, and Chhota Udepur, the Congress may wrest the Anand seat, whereas a close fight is expected in Dahod and Panchmahal seats, say political watchers.

Vadodara, from where PM Narendra Modi was elected in 2014 elections, is seen as one of the sure-shot seats for BJP. The party has fielded sitting MP Ranjanben Bhatt — elected last time with a margin of 3.29 lakh votes after Modi vacated the seat — and Congress candidate Prashant Patel, who also heads the party in Vadodara, is unlikely to pose a major challenge to Bhatt. Even in the 2017 polls, when Congress put up its best performance in decades, all seven seats part of Vadodara LS were won by BJP with a cumulative lead of 3.66 lakh.

Meanwhile, BJP is also expected to win the Kheda seat, where it has again fielded Devusinh Chauhan as its candidate. Chauhan had defeated veteran Congress leader and five-term MP Dinsha Patel with a margin of 2.32 lakh votes in 2014, and is expected to stave off the challenge from former minister Bimal Shah, who joined the Congress recently. Resentment among local Congress leaders over Shah's selection is expected to work to the BJP's advantage.

The BJP is also expected to retain Chhota Udepur seat, where it dropped three-term MP Ramsinh Rathwa and fielded Geeta Rathwa as its nominee. She will face-off against Congress's Ranjit Rathwa, son of 10-term MLA Mohansinh Rathwa. BJP had won the seat in 2014 with a margin of 1.79 lakh, and even though the Congress bagged four of the seven Assembly seats that are a part of the Chhota Udepur LS, the BJP still had a cumulative lead of over 43,000.

The one seat in central Gujarat where Congress appears to be on a firm-footing is Anand, where it has fielded former union minister Bharatsinh Solanki. Solanki had won from Anand in 2004 and 2009, but lost in 2014 by 63,000 votes — the lowest margin in the state. The party's confidence stems from the fact that it had a lead of more than 59,000 votes over BJP in the 2017 assembly polls in Anand. The BJP fielded industrialist Mitesh Patel from Anand, after dropping MP Dilip Patel. "The Anand seat is ours to lose," said a senior state Congress leader.

Political insiders also expect good fights in Dahod and Panchmahal seats.

Tribal reserved Dahod will see a face-off between Union minister Jashwantsinh Bhabhor and former BJP MP Babu Katara, who is contesting on the Congress symbol. Bhabhor had won in 2014 with a margin of 2.32 lakh, but Katara is unlikely to be a walkover. It was Katara who had broken Congress' streak of nine straight wins in Dahod by winning it for the BJP for the first time in 1999. He also won in 2004, but was in political wilderness after being arrested for human trafficking in 2007. He joined the Congress after his son Bhavesh successfully contested in 2017 polls as the party's candidate from Jhalod seat.

A fight also looks likely in Panchmahal seat, where the BJP has fielded MLA Ratansinh Rathod as its candidate and Congress has pitched prominent OBC leader VK Khant. The BJP had won the seat in 2014 polls with a margin of 1.70 lakh votes, and had a sizeable lead of nearly 74,000 votes even in the 2017 Assembly polls.