Gujarat: By Saurabh Vaktania: The Bharatiya Janata Party easily won the Gujarat Assembly elections in 2022. The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party each received 17 and 5 seats, respectively.

The emergence of 105 new faces in the Gujarat assembly house is an intriguing result of the elections. These individuals include businessmen, businesswomen, mayors, housewives, doctors, and agitators.

There are 14 women and 1 Muslim among the new faces. Thirteen of the 14 female MLAs are from the BJP, while one is from the Congress.

77 incumbent legislators were re-elected.

A SINGLE MUSLIM LEGISLATOR

The number of Muslim representatives in the Gujarat Assembly has decreased. Imran Khedawala of Congress is the assembly’s lone Muslim legislator. He defeated BJP candidate Bhushan Bhatt and AIMIM candidate Sabir Kabliwala to win the Jamalpur-Khadia seat.

Khedawala faced stiff opposition from AIMIM and BJP candidates. AIMIM ran a strong campaign in support of Kabliwala, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a roadshow in the constituency to show his support for the BJP candidate.

Gujarat: WOMEN LEGISLATORS: WHO ARE THEY?

Dr Payal Kukrani, a first-time candidate from Naroda, is one of the new female faces in the assembly. She’s a doctor with little to no political experience, but she won the election with over one lakh votes.

She holds a doctorate in anesthesiology. She finished her higher education in Ahmedabad before moving to Russia to pursue her MD. Kukrani’s mother is an Ahmedabad councillor, and her father has also worked in politics.

Rivaba Jadeja, wife of Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, won the Jamnagar assembly seat. Rivaba joined the BJP in 2019 and was named the party’s candidate for this election.

Hardik Patel, the face of the 2015 Patidar agitation, won as a first-time candidate from the Viramgam seat. Anandiben Patel’s resignation as Gujarat Chief Minister in 2016 was linked to her failure to address the Patidar protest led by Hardik Patel. In May of this year, Hardik resigned as the Congress working president and joined the BJP.

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