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Gujarat Assembly elections and Himachal Pradesh elections today, we will be counting the lighter moments of this festival of democracy, a prequel to the 2024 Lok Sabha blockbuster.

Exit polls have predicted a BJP sweep in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The AAP may have to settle for heartbreak in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh a day after wresting control of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The Congress, meanwhile, could give a tough fight to the BJP in Himachal Pradesh.

Memefest has already taken over social media with MCD election results warming up the crowd for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

In Gujarat, the fate of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Aam Aadmi Party chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi, youth leaders Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani and Alpesh Thakor, among a total 1,621 candidates will be decided today. In the 2017 Assembly polls, BJP won 99 seats and Congress 77 seats, while two seats went to BTP, one to NCP, and three to independents.

Ahead of this month’s elections, the BJP’s number in the House stood at 110 and Congress at 60 after 20 MLAs who won on Congress seats switched over to the BJP in the last five years, three of them quitting just ahead of the elections.

In Himachal Pradesh, Independents are already the favourites, with many claiming they have received “feelers” from major parties. A party needs the support of at least 35 candidates to form the government in Himachal Pradesh. But exit polls Monday indicated that the Congress and the ruling BJP might struggle to make it to this half-way mark when the results are declared today.

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