Gujarat, Himachal Election Results 2022 Live Updates: Party's high command to decide on Himachal CM, say Congress MLAs

The Congress has convened a meeting of all its newly-elected MLAs in Himachal Pradesh in Chandigarh after the declaration of results on Thursday, and the meet was likely to pass a resolution authorising the Congress president to elect the CLP leader. As trends indicated a comfortable win for the grand old party in Himachal Pradesh, Shukla said the party was happy that it is getting an opportunity to form the government in the state and asserted that the party will do everything to fulfill the 10 guarantees made to the people of the state and would provide better governance to people.

Isudan Gadhvi, the chief ministerial candidate of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), lost against BJP candidate Hardasbhai Bera from Khambhalia assembly constituency in Gujarat. Hardasbhai has secured 77,305 votes after all 24 rounds of counting of votes. Whereas, Gadhvi secured 58,467 votes. Congress candidate Ahir Vikrambhai Arjanbhai Maadam got 44,526 votes.

With counting of votes crossing the halfway mark in most constituencies of Gujarat, the BJP has received 53 per cent of the votes counted, while the Congress has 27 per cent and the AAP 13 per cent. "Due to the votes given by the people of Gujarat, the AAP is today becoming a national party. The politics of education and health is making a mark for the first time in the country. Congratulations to the entire country on this," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Incumbent Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel will retain his post and take oath on December 12, said BJP Gujarat chief CR Patil on Thursday as the party seemed set to win an overwhelming majority in the 182-member assembly. Patel defeated Congress's Amee Yajnik from Ghatlodia by a margin of nearly 2 lakh votes.

As the saffron party is set to return to power for the seventh time in a row, the Congress stalwart in Karnataka said the fledgling party splurged huge money in the Gujarat elections. "In Gujarat, the AAP spent a lot. My information says that the BJP funded the AAP to divide the Congress vote. Because the AAP contested the election, we lagged behind," Siddaramaiah told reporters here. He said the new entrant got 10 per cent of votes reducing the Congress' vote share.

Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Kantilal Amrutiya, secured a major victory in Morbi assembly election after maintaining a lead of over 61,5000 votes against his nearest rival Jayantilal Patel of Congress party. As per the latest updates by the Election Commission, after 22 rounds of counting, Amrutiya got 1,13,701 votes while 52,121 votes were polled in favour of Congress candidate Jayantilal Patel.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said the verdict of the Gujarat assembly election was on expected lines, but it doesn't reflect the mood of the nation. Addressing the NCP's state executive meeting, Pawar said, "The Gujarat verdict is on expected lines as the entire power machinery was used for the benefit of one particular state and projects were shifted there."

Sitting BJP MLA Kisorebhai Kanani took a comfortable lead over rival Alpesh Kathiria of the Aam Admi Party in Varachha Road constituency, dashing the latter's hopes of gaining a foothold in the diamond and textile hub of Surat. After 18 rounds of voting, Kanani had polled 67,177 votes, staying ahead of Kathiria by a good distance. Kathiria had polled 50,285 votes, while the Congress candidate could garner only 2,939 votes.

Ruling BJP bagged 53.33 per cent votes and the debutant AAP got a 12 per cent share in the Gujarat assembly elections. The Congress share has shrunk to 26.9 per cent, as per the Election Commission (EC)figures of 12pm. According to the EC data, BJP was leading in over 150 seats, Congress in 22 seats, AAP six, Samajwadi Party on one and independent on three seats. AAP, which for the first time aggressively contested the elections in Gujarat, has so far fetched 12 per cent votes and its candidates are leading on six seats.