Gujarat's ruling BJP on Monday said it was confident of retaining power in the state as vote count showed its candidates were racing ahead in 82 of the 182 Assembly seats. Candidates of the Congress, which had pledged to end the Bharatiya Janata Party's rule of Gujarat since 1995, were ahead in 52 constituencies, counting trends indicated less than an hour after the vote count began at 8 a.m.

Indian polling officials (R) verify electoral docments of Indian voters in a re-polling centre at Nava Naroda on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Pic/AFP