GANDHINAGAR: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah was leading by more than 2.31 lakh votes over his nearest Congress rival Sonal Patel in the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, officials said on Tuesday.

Shah has so far got 2.99 lakh votes, while Sonal Patel received 68,000 votes.

Counting was underway for 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state since 8 am.

In the 2019 election, Shah won the seat by a huge margin of more than 5.57 lakh votes.

The Union minister is seeking a second term from the seat, which has in the past been represented by BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani.

Former prime minister Ata Bihari Vajpayee also won the seat in 1996, though he preferred to retain the Lucknow seat (in Uttar Pradesh).