Early trends from Gujarat show Congress is gaining ground across the State and posing a closer fight than most exit polls predicted.
At 9:30 p.m., the difference in vote share between the BJP and the Congress was just about 4%, indicating a drop for the ruling party from its 2014 peak.
The Congress has also narrowed the nearly 10% gap between them and the ruling party by gaining ground in areas like Saurashtra and South Gujarat.
Trends after six rounds indicate that Congress' experiment to forge a social coalition with caste/community leaders like Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani may have worked for the party.
The 24-year-old Patidar leader may have succeeded in breaching BJP's loyal Patidar vote bank for the Congress to gain ground in Saurashtra region that has 54 seats.
Interestingly, BJP candidate is leading by a few hundred votes in Viramgam seat, Hardik Patel's hometown.
Even in Varacha Road seat of Surat where Hardik Patel had taken out a massive roadshow, BJP is leading by slim margin of 1000 votes.
Congress' anti-demonetisation and GST campaign failed to breach the BJP's fortress in Surat.
Though the BJP has pulled ahead after two hours of counting and the gap in terms of seats seems to be increasing (ECI says BJP is 96 and INC 63 out of 157), Congress has put up a credible fight in Prime Minister Modi's home turf where nearly half the Union Cabinet led a high pitched campaign against the Congress and Rahul Gandhi.
