NEW DELHI: The BJP beat anti-incumbency, GST worries, a resurgent Congress and a spirited fight put up by three Young Turks, to win Gujarat for the sixth straight time, after an all-round nasty, brutish and long poll campaign.By no means though does it look like an emphatic win for the BJP.The saffron party is ahead in 99 of 182 seats, a much lower number than in the last elections in 2012, when it won 115 seats.. For a victory though, it need win just 92 seats. The Congress is trailing. It leads in 79 seats, a much higher tally than 61 in the 2012 state elections.The TOIonline-CVoter exit poll said the BJP is likely to secure 108 seats in the 182-member Gujarat assembly, and the Congress and its allies are expected to win 74 seats.It appears, the BJP will sweep urban and rural-urban sectors, while the Congress will corner the rural vote. Of a total 109 seats in rural constituencies, the Congress won or is leading in 62, while the BJP is trailing at 43."It is a matter of happiness for us, this is the victory of development," said Union Minister and BJP leader Smriti Irani.When asked to comment on the Congress giving her party "a tough fight", the famously plain speaking Irani said, "jo jeeta wohi sikandar", or, "the winner takes it all".For all their jubilation though, the BJP would have had some tense moments, starting around 9 am for at least 90-odd minutes. That's because the race began to get close, with the Congress whooshing to what appeared to be a lead, ahead in 81 seats to the BJP's 78. Even incumbent BJP chief minister Vijay Rupani was seen trailing.The television anchors were agog, the Sensex opened 700 points lower (many see this election as referendum on economic reforms), and the Congress party's Ashok Gehlot tried to control his enthusiasm and slightly tempered expectations saying, "let the final results come".He was saved a lot of embarrassment because about an hour later -no doubt a heart-stopping hour - the BJP was back in the lead, ahead in a comforting 28-30 more seats than the Congress. By noon, it became clear the BJP was on its way to a sixth straight win in what had become a prestige battle with the Congress which hasn't seen power in the state for 22 years.The three Young Turks who took on the BJP, Jignesh Mewani , Alpesh Thakor and Lalit Vasoya (Patidar leader Hardik Patel's key aide), won their respective seats, but by having pledged their troth to the Congress, they weren't on the wining team,As for the Congress, there would be some small comfort in the fact that it may win more seats than it did the last go-around in 2012. As well, the caste coalition stitched together by Congress president Rahul Gandhi seems to have worked in the party's favour in the Saurashtra Kutch region of the state. Here, the grand old party is way ahead of the BJP. In addition, the Congress won more seats in rural areas than the BJP did.For the BJP, a win in Gujarat is a vindication of its tough decisions to demonetise high-value notes (in November 2016) and introduce the unified tax rate by way of the Goods and Services Tax Act (GST) (June 30 midnight).The Congress hammered it on both these issues and especially took up cudgels on behalf of the 'baniya', or trader, community in the state, which was hit hard by GST. The Congress tried hard, very hard, to capitalise on their resentment. Its president Rahul Gandhi coined the now-famous phrase 'Gabbar Singh Tax' to describe the GST and ascribe to it the villainous qualities of Hindi films' iconic character Gabbar Singh.Still, the Congress didn't succeed. Even in Surat's seats, where a majority of the trader community is from, the BJP looks set to retain almost all of them.The BJP registered impressive gains in the urban areas of Gujarat, leaving the Congress way behind. In central and south Gujarat too, the BJP is clearly ahead. The BJP did lose rural voters though, according to data crunched by timesofindia.com.If nothing else, this soon-to-be-victory for the BJP is a testament to the groundwork laid done by the party cadres - an edge the saffron party has always had.Union BJP minister Nirmala Sitharaman too alluded to BJP workers."Undoubtedly, a major victory. The kind of work which Party workers have done right from booth workers level till PM's level, everybody put their best foot forward and both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh (where the BJP also is heading for a win) have recognised the good work going on in the name of development," said minister Sitharaman.