Ahmedabad: The ruling BJP is leading in over 12 seats while its prime rival Congress was ahead on eight seats, as early trends of Assembly polls started pouring in from across Gujarat. As per the trends available in the first 45 minutes of counting, the BJP is ahead on 12 seats, while the Congress candidates have a slight edge over their BJP opponents in eight constituencies. 

The elections for 182-seat Assembly were held on December 9 and 14, after an acrimonious campaign, which was dominated by a face-off between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. In the 2012 elections, the BJP had won 115 seats while the Congress emerged victorious on 61 seats. 

The BJP has been in power in the state since 1995, winning consecutive elections in the home state of Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. 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 Mevani is contesting from Vadgam.