Gujarat Elections 5-Point Recap: No. 3 Finisher In 2017 Was A Plot Twist

NOTA or None Of The Above made its debut in the 2017 assembly elections. In 2017 elections, NOTA collected over 5.5 lakh votes or 1.84 per cent of the vote share - third highest after the BJP and the Congress. NOTA received more votes than two recognised national political parties - Nationalist Congress Party (0.62 per cent) and Bahujan Samaj Party (0.69 per cent).

The Aam Aadmi Party, which is pitching itself as an alternative to the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress in the upcoming elections, had a disastrous debut in 2017. With 29,509 votes or 0.10 per cent of the total, AAP polled fewer than another debutant - NOTA. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party contested 29 seats and lost its deposit in all.

 The BJP won just 99 seats in the 2017 assembly elections, just seven more than the halfway-mark. This was the ruling party's worst performance in Gujarat since 1990, when it won 67 seats. However, the party's vote share rose by 1.20 per cent to 49.05 per cent. The BJP's seat tally was the second-lowest single-party majority in Gujarat's history after the Congress which won 93 seats in 1967.

 The Congress, the principal Opposition party of Gujarat since 1995, saw its seats increasing from 61 to 77. It was its best performance since 1985, when it won a record 149 seats. The party's vote share too rose from 38.93 per cent in 2012 polls to 41.44 per cent - its best since the 1985 polls.

The 2017 assembly polls were characterised by close contests in several seats. The Congress won the Kaprada assembly seat by a margin of just 170 votes. Seven seats were won by a margin of less than 1,000 votes, with the Congress winning four. Nine seats were won by a margin of between 1,000-2,000 votes, 24 seats had a victory margin between 2,000 and 6,000 votes. Noteworthy is the fact that NOTA votes were higher than the victory margin in at least 30 seats.