The present State Legislative Assembly’s term will be coming to an end by January, 2018. The elections will be held in the late 2017. Since, elections held in the year 2012, was held in two phases, in this year’s election also we can expect the same. So the election may be held during the month of November and December, 2017. Last time, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the election and was able to form a government under their Chief Ministerial candidate, Vijay Rupani.
Unlike last time, it is expected that Congress will be giving tough competition to BJP. This is because of the fact that Patel’s community has emerged as an important component of the state electorate, in the last two years. Due to Hardik Patel’s agitation, in this election 2017, Congress will be standing a chance against BJP. However, if BJP loses to Congress in this election, it will be a big setback for them in the next Legislative assembly election, which will be held in 2019. So, at all costs BJP will try to avoid such situation.
Election Date: November or December, 2017 (Tentative, Dates yet to be announced)
Opinion Poll by Indiatrendingnow:
While some of the opinion polls have already given their percentage for all parties, in which BJP’s projection was 47%, Congress’s projection was 40% and AAP’s was a mere 2%. However, recently a snap poll was conducted by Indiatrendingnow, between October 15, 2016 and October 25, 2016. The result of which showed majority of 51.8% voting in favour of BJP. The voting percentages are as follows:
| Political Parties | Voting Percentage |
| BJP | 51.8% |
| Congress | 26.3% |
| AAP | 9.9% |
| Others | 2% |
| Can’t Say | 10% |
Opinion Poll by VDP Associates:
The poll surveys by VDP Associates are almost accurate every time and they have also predicted that BJP is in a slightly better position compared to all the other parties.
| Political Parties | Voting Percentage |
| BJP | 47% |
| Congress | 40% |
| AAP | 2% |
| Others | 4% |
| Can’t Say | 7% |
Surveys:
There has been surveys conducted by many units and their result was also in favour of BJP.
Gujarat State unit of Congress:
An internal survey was conducted in September, 2016 by the Unit of Congress. They have revealed that the BJP may win a total of 97 seats of the 182 seats. They have also mentioned that Congress will secure 85 seats. In addition to this, they have finalised that BJP will certainly get 52 seats from urban areas.
RSS Internal Survey:
RSS conducted an internal survey in August, 2016, in order to see the voter’s reaction towards the Dalit agitation in Una. This survey was disappointing for the ruling BJP party. It was projected that BJP could win only 60-65 seats out of 182 seats.
Issues:
The issues that need to be taken care of by the next party forming the government will be decline in State’s economic growth.
Since the Election commission is yet to release the dates for nomination, polling and results, we have to wait till the election commission comes up with concrete dates.
