AAP draws a blank in Gujarat polls

The Aam Aadmi Party, which contested the Gujarat Assembly polls for the first time, came a cropper, with all the 27 candidates put up by it losing their deposits.
Of the 27 seats that the AAP contested, it lost 14 to the Congress and the rest 13 to the BJP.
In Botad constituency, where BJP's former minister Saurabh Patel won after a tight battle with Congress' Dhiraj Kalathiya, the AAP nominee, Jilu Bavaliya, came 16th among 25 candidates in the fray, securing only 361 votes.
Bavaliya stood far behind several independent candidates contesting in the seat.
In Jamnagar (Rural), AAP candidate Paresh Bhanderi came 12th with 321 votes while Congress' Vallabh Dharaviya won the seat with 70,750 votes, as per figures of the Election Commission.

In Dhoraji seat also, where 25 candidates were in the fray, AAP nominee Hardik Vachhani stood a distant 12th.

Congress' Lalit Vasoya, a Patidar leader who was associated with quota agitation spearhead Hardik Patel, won the seat.
Besides, AAP's Rasha Uppalaya came 10th in Limbayat constituency which was won by BJP's Sangita Patil.
The party candidates in Katargam and Bapunagar stood third.
In Katargam, AAP's Nagajibhai Ambaliya secured 4,135 votes. BJP's Vinodbhai Moradiya won the seat with 1,25,387 votes.
In Bapunagar, AAP's Muslim candidate Amjadkhan Pathan got 1,548 votes. Congress' Himmatsinh Patel won the seat with 58,785 votes.
Significantly, AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not come to campaign for his candidates in the state.