Riding high on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP retained power in Gujarat for a record seventh straight term pulverising the opposition to secure the biggest majority ever in the state.
While the BJP set new records in the home state of Modi and home minister Amit Shah with its “historic” victory, it lost Himachal Pradesh to the Congress after a close fight and the hill state continued with the tradition of nearly four decades of voting out the incumbent party.
Congress leaders credited its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi for the win which came as a boost for the grand old party in the home state of BJP president JP Nadda.
As Modi continued to hold sway over voters and addressed 31 election rallies in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) crossed the three-fourths majority and in the process checkmated the new entrant Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) in triangular contests and also pushed the Congress down to its all time low.
Getting support from all sections, the BJP got 156 seats and in a House of 182 garnering a vote share of nearly 53 per cent which was the highest for any party in the western state. Congress pushed to 17 seats and AAP to 5 seats.
The BJP, which bagged 99 seats in 2017 assembly polls with a 49.1 per cent vote share, surpassed its previous best showing of 127 seats in 2002 when Modi was the chief minister. The Congress holds the all-time record of 149 seats that it had won in 1985 under the leadership of Madhavsinh Solanki.
With a nearly 13 per cent vote share, the Arvind Kejriwal-headed AAP won five seats. In a video message, the Delhi chief minister said though the AAP has not won many seats the votes it got helped it attain the national party status.
In Himachal Pradesh, the Congress won 40 of the 68 seats followed by the BJP, which bagged 25 seats and independents won three seats. Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, who won for the sixth time from Seraj assembly seat in Mandi district, said he respects the mandate of the people and submitted his resignation to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar.
Addressing BJP workers at the party headquarters in New Delhi after state election results, Prime Minister Modi said Gujarat’s love for the BJP despite it being in power for 25 years is unprecedented. “They have broken all records, written history,” he said. He also accepted voters’ mandate in the Himachal Pradesh assembly and Delhi (MCD) elections and hailed the BJP for winning the bypolls in Bihar and Rampur. He also praised the election commission for conducting fair polls.
