Posted on Thu , 20 Dec '12

Confident about a hat-trick, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi forged ahead in the state with winning in his Maninagar constituency. At the end of the third round of vote count, Modi's rival Shweta Bhatt of the Congress was lagging behind with 4,000 votes while Modi had secured over 8,700 votes. The ruling BJP led by Modi had earlier exuded full confidence about its victory in the state. Meanwhile, looking back at the conduct of the polls, Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath said that revisions of the electoral roll had added over two million new voters in Gujarat, and that there had been a marked increase in voter turnout, especially women.