Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah once again led their party to a clean sweep in Gujarat – winning all the 26 Lok Sabha seats. The state has never consecutively handed over victory to a single party. The BJP had won all the seats in Gujarat in 2014 too.
The 2019 victory is sweeter for the BJP as it bagged over 1.76 crore votes, which is 62.2 per cent of 2.89 crore votes polled. It is also almost double of the 91.01 lakh votes that Congress won during the polls. Congress got just 32.1 per cent of total votes polled.
If that wasn't enough the winning margin for BJP has seen new highs. The results mirrored the exit polls which had given only one seat to the Congress in the state. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani told media persons that the verdict is a stamp of approval of voters of India over developmental and strong leadership that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has demonstrated for past five years.
"The people of India have once again posed their faith in the government led by PM Modi. They have given BJP a thumping majority. He expressed hope that in next five years, the country would scale new heights. State BJP chief Jitu Vaghani said that the organisational capabilities of party's national president Amit Shah played key role in results.
Congress candidate from Patan, Jagdish Thakor admitted that the result are unbelievable. "While we accept the mandate of the people, booth workers are unable to digest the numbers. We need to find an antidote to the strategy adopted by the BJP. We need to work more among the people," Thakor said. Political analyst and former faculty of Political Science at Gujarat University Dinesh Shukla said that BJP has organisational structure till the booth level, which is absent in Congress. Also, PM Modi's oratory skills overshadowed issues of joblessness and farmers' distress raised by Congress.
SWEET SUCCESS
- BJP won over 1.80 crore votes (62.2% of 2.89 crore votes polled)
- Congress got just 32.1% of total votes polled
- BJP had won all the seats in Gujarat in 2014 too