Gujarat Election 2022 Results: In land of Amul, BJP tastes success after 5 years; Yogesh Patel wins Anand

Yogesh Patel, a candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), seized the Anand constituency from the Congress on Thursday. In Anand, the city that gave the world the renowned "Amul" dairy brand, Patel defeated Kanti Sodha Parmar of the Congress by more than 41,000 votes.

The seat, which the Congress had won in 2017 after a 25-year absence, was closely contested by the BJP. After three failed efforts, Parmar, a current Congress MLA, won the Assembly segment in 2017 by just over 5,000 votes.

Results of top candidates from Anand constituencey

Yogesh Patel, BJP - 111859 votes won (57.68% vote share)
Kanti Sodha Parmar, Congress - 70236 votes won (36.22% vote share)
Sedaliya Girishkumar Himmatlal, AAP - 5071 votes won (2.61% vote share)

Also read: 'Brand Modi' stamps its authority once again, puts BJP on course to record tally in Gujarat

Seven Assembly constituencies in the Anand district had up to 15 candidates running for office, but the actual contest was between Parmar and Patel. The Assembly constituency, which includes the municipalities of Anand, Karamsand, and Vidyanagar, as well as 14 villages, has 3,13,857 registered voters.

Five of the 14 villages border Anand city and are now considered semi-urban centres. The primary source of income for residents of Anand, which is home to the renowned cooperative dairy "Amul" and also has an educational centre in Vidyanagar, is farming tobacco, bananas, and capsicum.

Before the election dates were announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at a sizable rally in Vidyanagar, and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel accompanied Yogesh Patel when he filed his nomination papers. During the Anand campaign, which saw voting in the second round on December 5, Modi also spoke at a rally.

"This result shows how seriously the BJP takes the Anand assembly constituency as it wanted to wrest the seat from the Congress," said a local party leader. 

Also read: Gujarat Election Results 2022: 3 key takeaways from the mandate

Since 2017, the BJP has gained all 24 seats in Vidyanagar, 18 of the 28 seats in Karamsad, and 36 of the 52 seats in the Anand municipality. Seven of the 11 taluka panchayats and Zilla Panchayats are also in the saffron outfit. Karamsad in Anand district is the birthplace of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. There is 100 per cent literacy in the Anand Assembly constituency.

(With inputs from PTI)

• Gujarat Election 2022
• Gujarat
• Amul
• Narendra Modi