Ahmedabad: Psephologists are expecting a close contest between the BJP and the Congress in the Patidar dominated Visnagar assembly seat in Mehsana district of Gujarat. BJP has fielded senior leader and current Health Minister Rishikesh Patel from Visnagar seat opposite Congress's Kirit Patel. The counting day for the state assembly election 2022 is slated for December 8.
A total of 10 candidates are in the fray including AAP candidate on the Visnagar seat, but poll analysts are expecting a close contest between the Congress and the BJP candidates. The BJP has been winning the Visnagar seat since 1995. In the last 2017 assembly elections, the BJP had won this seat despite the Patidar agitation over.
In the 2017 elections, Rishikesh Patel of BJP got 77,496 votes while Mahendra Patel of Congress got 74,627 votes. The saffron party has been facing another challenge this time around over the arrest of former Home Minister Vipul Chaudhary. Rishikesh Patel has a record of winning 3 consecutive terms from Visnagar assembly seat.
However, the infighting in the BJP in Visnagar may hurt the prospects of the party, analysts say. Caste equation is also expected to play an important role in the election results. The population in Visnagar includes 33% Patels, 23% Thakors, 6% Muslims, 14% OBCs, 10% SCs and 14% others. There are a total of 2,11,833 voters in Visnagar assembly seat of whom there are 1,10,362 male voters and 1,01,471 women voters.
There was a 66.12 percent voting in this year's election against 74.96 percent in 2017.
