The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is suffering losses in the key state of Gujarat with as many as three seats likely to go out of its hand. With four of its MLA's getting elected to the Lok Sabha and two MLA's of the Congress, including Alpesh Thakor, defecting to it, the six seats got vacated. BJP, in effect, is defending all these constituencies.
However, the saffron party is leading only on three of them. Lunawada, Kheralu, and Tharad are those three constituencies. Congress candidates are ahead on the other three, including Radhanpur which was represented by Alpesh Thakor.
In the 2017 assembly election, it was the troika of Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani that helped the Congress boost its performance. While Patel and Mevani were seen as representatives of the Patidar and Dalit community respectively, Thakor was regarded as an emerging OBC leader. If he loses, Alpesh's career would be hard to resurrect.
Interestingly, the other defector to the BJP from Congress Dhavalsinh Zala is also trailing. The one seat which was won by BJP in the last elections and which is likely to change hands is Amraiwadi.
