Gujarat is gearing up for Assembly elections by the end of 2012. The term of the present Assembly will be lapsed in December 2012. The Elections Commission of India is likely to release Gujarat Assembly Elections 2012 notification in October – November 2012. Main political parties in the state are Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP), The Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), BSP and Janatadal (U). In 182 member Gujarat Assembly, present strengths of various parties are as follows:
1) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): 117 seats
2) Indian National Congress (INC): 59 seats
3) Nationalist Congress Party (NCP): 3 seats
4) Independents : 2 seats
5) Janata Dal (United): 1 seat
6) Bahujan Samaj Party: 0
Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been successful in forming the Government for the consecutive second time through winning the Assembly Elections in 2007. The BJP has won 117 seats in 2007, less than 10 seats comparing to its earlier tally of 127 seats in 2002 Assembly Elections. This is going to be third election under the leadership of Narendra Modi. It may not be a cakewalk for Modi this time as the infighting in the BJP has reached to the peak in the recent times.
Another big change this time would be implementation of delimitation of constituencies. Several constituencies will be dissolved and new segments will be formed based on the size of population. This also will have impact on the fortunes of political parties. Let us wait and watch to know how the political dynamics changes as the days progress towards elections.