Congress leader Geniben Nagaji Thakor won in Gujarat’s Banaskantha Lok Sabha constituency by more than 30,400 votes, according to Election Commission data.

This is the first Lok Sabha seat win for the party in the state since the 2009 general elections.

Thakor, an MLA from Gujarat’s Vav Assembly constituency, won 6.71 lakh votes. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rekhaben Hiteshbhai Chaudhari secured 6.41 lakh votes.

Banaskantha is one of 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat. The constituency has been a stronghold of the BJP. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Hindutva party’s Parbatbhai Patel won the seat against the Congress’ Parthi Bhatol by a margin of 3.68 lakh votes. The BJP won the seat in 2014 by more than 2 lakh votes.

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The Congress has not been able to secure a win in Gujarat since 2009. While the BJP won 14 seats in the 2009 elections, the Congress had bagged 11 at the time.

The state went to the polls this time on May 7 in the third phase of polling.

Polling across 542 parliamentary constituencies was held across seven phases between April 19 and June 1. The Lok Sabha has 543 seats and a party or coalition needs 272 seats to form the government.

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