Gandhinagar:
The BJP has touched the 100-mark in Gujarat, where it won a sixth straight term on Monday but with a reduced margin, confined to double digits.
The party won 99 seats but has the support of 100 now, counting an independent legislator who was expelled by the Congress. Ratansinh Rathod, a lawmaker elected in central Gujarat, today declared his "unconditional support" for the BJP. Mr Rathod contested as an independent after he failed to get the Congress to field him.
A party needs only 92 seats in the 182-member Gujarat assembly to form government but 100 seats was seen as a psychological mark that the BJP struggled to cross on Monday when the votes were counted in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state.
When the results were finally declared, the BJP settled at 99; it had won less than 100 seats in Gujarat for the first time in 25 years.
The Congress won 77 seats, but with the support of three independents, claimed 80.
The results were at odds with many exit polls that were wide off the mark.
The BJP had 116 seats and the Congress had 60 seats in the previous assembly.
Elections were held in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh, where the BJP swept to power, defeating the Congress.
The BJP struggled to cross the 100-mark in Gujarat when the votes were counted on Monday.
