BJP sweeps Gujarat in historic victory, wins 85% seats; dented by AAP, Cong puts up it worst show

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday posted a historic victory in Gujarat and stormed back to power with a thumping majority, winning 156 seats in the 182-member state assembly and a seventh term, equalling the Left Front's record in West Bengal. The Congress party finished second, winning 17 seats, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made its debut with five seats.

Independents won three seats and the Samajwadi Party also registered a solitary win.

The BJP improved its vote share to 52.5 per cent from 49 per cent last time, while the Congress party's vote share fell sharply from 42 per cent to 27.3 per cent, as a big chunk of its voters seems to have switched to AAP, which secured 13 per cent of the votes.

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The BJP not only improved its best showing till date — 127 seats in 2002, but also surpassed the record set by the Congress party in 1985, when it won 149 seats under the leadership of late Madhavsinh Solanki, riding on the sympathy wave following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

ALSO READ |Gujarat Election Results 2022: Checkfull list of winners and leading candidates in constituencies

Addressing party workers, PM Modi said: “Gujarat's love for BJP despite it being in power for 25 years is unprecedented, they have broken all records, written history.”

Crediting Modi with the party’s stupendous performance, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said the people of Gujarat had reposed their faith in him. “If the masses of Gujarat have elected the BJP, then we will have to live up to their expectations,” said Patel, who is likely to continue as CM, secured a second straight win from Ghatlodia in Ahmedabad by more than 1.9 lakh votes.

The BJP has not lost an election in Gujarat since 1995. Thursday’s sweep will be a huge morale boost for the party and will galvanise the party’s rank and file and boost their morale for the 2024 general elections.

ALSO READ |Gujarat Elections 2022: As 'servant of people', Modi seeks another BJP term

The contest in Gujarat has traditionally been between the BJP and Congress, it turned three-cornered this time with the entry of the AAP. The fortunes of the Congress seem to have been dented by AAP which has registered its presence and will now aim to be the main opposition party in the state though its chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi lost in Khambhalia.

Several Congress leaders, including its former leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani in Amreli, lost but its senior-most leader Arjun Modhwadia won comfortably from Porbandar, while firebrand Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani reversed early losses to win from Vadgam.

The state polls in Gujarat also emerged as a silver lining for a decade-old AAP, led by Arvind Kejriwal. AAP secured nearly 13per cent of the total votes polled in Gujarat, translating into over 3.4million votesand can now claim national party status, becoming ninth one, within a decade of its existence.

Both BJP and AAP ran fierce campaigns. But the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his home turf trumped the newbie excitement and 'X-factor' projections that the Aam Aadmi Party hoped to take electoral mileage from.

In the last phase of polls, Modi helmed over a 50-km roadshow spanning 13 assembly segmentsin Ahmedabad city, which reportedly resulted in massive gains for the BJP in the last phase of polling on December 5.

The Indian National Congress, India's oldest political party, failed to win over its own core support base in the state, with the AAP eating up a lion's share of INC'straditional votes.

The state polls were held in two phases, with polling for the first phase in 89 seats held on December 1, and for the remaining 93 seats on December 5.

The elections witnessed a turnout of 64.33 per cent, around 4 per cent less than the previous Assembly polls in 2017. Of the 4.9 crore registered voters,3.16 crore voted in the 2022 elections in the state.

Himachal Pradesh Results 2022: Congress trumps BJP in close elections

About 1200 km northwest of Gujarat's capital Ahmedabad, the good news came for Indian National Congress from Shimla, the capital of the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh. The Congress seems to have trumped the ruling BJP by either having won or leading on 39 of 68 seats, more than the majority mark of 35 seats. The BJP, meanwhile, is trailing with leads on 26 seats, according to the latest projections published by the Election Commission of India.

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