Full schedule and other details

The Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022 will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. Voting for 89 Assembly seats will take place in phase one while for the other 93 in phase two. The votes will be counted on December 8 with Himachal Pradesh. The electoral commission announced the dates for the polls on November 3.

The Legislative Assembly of Gujarat has 182 seats. A party must win at least 92 seats to form a government in the state.

Gujarat is a BJP stronghold. It is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. The party has been in power in this western state for 27 years. He came to power in 1995 winning 121 seats. In the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections, the BJP won 99 seats, 16 less than the seats it won in 2012. The Congress, on the other hand, won 80 seats in 2017, 19 more than the 61 seats it had won in the previous elections.

For this year’s elections in Gujarat, the BJP has dropped 38 incumbent MPs, according to its first list of candidates. The party gave away tickets to several popular faces including debutant Rivaba Jadeja, wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja. Patidar leader Hardik Patel will also take part in the polls on a BJP ticket from Viramgam constituency. He officially joined the BJP earlier this year after resigning from Congress in May. There are seven candidates in the BJP’s top slate who fought for a Congress ticket last time out.

The ruling party sent incumbent Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel from Ghatlodia.

Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also in the running for the 182 seats in the elections. The AAP has nominated former TV presenter and journalist Isudan Gadhvi as its main ministerial candidate for the Gujarat elections.