GUJARAT, Dec 18: Gujarat election results show the party is retaining its seats in rural areas.

The Congress appeared to have made inroads into the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP)strongholds in urban Gujarat while holding on to its pocket boroughs in the rural regions of the western state, early trends showed on Monday.

As trends and results at 9.30am showed the Congress and the BJP locked in a close contest. The Congress was seen to be doing well in Patidar-dominated pockets including Amreli, Lathi, Savarkundla. Similar trends were seen in neighboring Bhavnagar districts where the Congress was ahead in Gariyadhar, Bhavnagar South and also in pockets of Junagadh district including Junagadh and Visavada.

Gujarat has 39 urban seats, 100 rural seats and 43 seats that are classified as semi-urban. In the 182-member assembly, the BJP swept the urban and semi-urban seats in 2012 but was in a neck-and-neck fight with the Congress among the village regions.

As per early trends, the BJP was ahead in central and south Gujarat while the Congress was leading in the crucial Patidar-dominated Saurashtra region. In north Gujarat, a neck and neck contest appeared on the cards.

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