It was a year when Rahul Gandhi finally stepped into the Congress President's shoes and ran a doughty campaign in Gujarat which unnerved the ruling BJP. It was also a year when Congress won its first major victory in a state -- Punjab -- and also faced several disappointments.

Vijay Rupani will continue as the Chief Minister of Gujarat and Nitin Patel as his deputy, the BJP announced on Friday after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley oversaw a meeting of the party's newly-elected MLAs.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will visit Gujarat to attend a three-day meeting starting on Wednesday to review the party's showing in Assembly elections in which it gave a tough fight to the ruling BJP.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi emerged as the most mentioned personality on Twitter during the course of Gujarat elections, followed by Congress President Rahul Gandhi, showed Twitter data which recorded over 1.9 million mentions of the elections on the platform since December 1.

Patidar leader Hardik Patel on Monday reiterated his doubts over the reliability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), saying they can be hacked and that was why the margin between the winning and losing candidates in the Gujarat Assembly elections was less in some constituencies.

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Maharashtra has predicted that his party will face a defeat in Gujarat elections.

The re-polling was ordered on Friday late night, citing technical reasons, and the EC annulled the polling data that was present in the EVMs.

All exit polls on Thursday predicted a clean sweep for the BJP in the Assembly elections held in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, in both of which it was virtually a direct fight between the two parties.

The second phase of state assembly polls began in Gujarat on Thursday. Voting has begun in 93 assembly constituencies across 14 districts in northern and central regions.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday shot off a notice to Congress President- elect Rahul Gandhi for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by giving election-related interviews to TV channels a day prior to the second phase polling in Gujarat, and asked him to respond by December 18.