Gujarat voters have handed the BJP its sixth straight victory in this Assembly elections, but tempered the win by reducing its majority to 99 – its lowest tally since 1995.
The BJP's dominance in the urban areas appeared to have saved the day for the BJP in what turned out to be a tight contest with Prime Minster Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi leading their parties from the front.
Three musketeers behind Congress
The Congress took 77 seats, three went to Independents, including the Congress-backed Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani, two seats were won by the Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) of Chhotubhai Vasava and one was bagged by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
With 49.1% of the vote, the BJP lost 10 percentage points from its 2014 Lok Sabha tally, but gained 1.2 percentage points over its 2012 Assembly performance.
NOTA grabbed over 5.5 lakh votes, or just under 2% of the votes polled.
The ruling party swept Surat city winning all 12 seats, won 12 out of 16 seats in Ahmedabad city, all five in Vadodara city, all three in Rajkot city and both seats in Bhavnagar and Jamnagar, together accounting for 36 of the total 40 seats spread in six major cities.
Five Ministers, Speaker lose
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel won their seats while five serving Ministers and Assembly Speaker Ramanlal Vora were defeated. Top Congress leaders Arjun Modwadia, Shaktisinh Gohil, Tushar Chaudhury and Siddharth Patel also lost.
Addressing party workers in New Delhi, Prime Minister Modi termed the BJP’s win a “victory for Gujarat.”
On his part, Mr. Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet, “The Congress party accepts the verdict of the people and congratulates the new governments in both states. I thank the people of Gujarat and Himachal with all my heart for the love they showed me.”
How Gujarat was won
A matter of double happiness: Modi
“Gujarat election results are historic. In this day and age, for a party to keep winning for so long is unprecedented,” Mr. Modi stated. “For me, Gujarat polls are a matter of double happiness. I am so happy that after I left the State, my colleagues and party workers continued their good work, making it possible for the party to win a sixth time.”
The Prime Minister’s 20-minute speech reflected his worries and the party’s vulnerabilities despite the victory in their backyard.
“In Gujarat, 30 years back, the poison of caste was spread so badly that it took workers like me 30 years to get rid of it. In the last few months, there were attempts to again sow the seeds of casteism, but people rejected it. I congratulate them, but people must be alert,” he said.
However, though the party has won despite the anti-incumbency factor, caste and social agitation and a slowing economy, the State polls turned into a photo finish unlike the landslide some exit polls predicted and much below the BJP’s target of winning 150 seats set by party president Amit Shah. Saurashtra, the BJP’s stronghold since 1995, dealt the party a big blow, as the Congress won 30 out of 54 seats in the region.
In some districts such as Morbi, Gir Somnath and Amreli, the BJP could not even open its account while it nearly got wiped out in Surendranagar and Junagadh.