'Thank you Gujarat!' says Modi as BJP set to retain power in all 6 civic bodies

Taking to Twitter, Modi said, "Grateful to the people of the state for trusting BJP yet again. Always an honour to serve Gujarat."

He also expressed joy over the results municipal results declared so far terming the win as "very special." "For a party that's serving in a state for over 2 decades to record such a phenomenal win is noteworthy,' he said in a separate tweet.

Home Minister Amit Shah also expressed his joy saying that municipal corporation poll results "show that Gujarat has again established itself as BJP's stronghold," adding, "today's results are one of the best results in Gujarat."

"BJP has got an overwhelming majority in elections to all six municipal corporations in Gujarat. I thank the voters of all the six municipal corporations, chief minister Vijay Rupani, state BJP chief CR Patil & party workers for this success," said BJP chief JP Nadda.

Polling for 576 seats in Ahmedabad and five other civic corporations was held on February 21. The counting of votes began on Tuesday morning and is still underway.

While Congress has won 43 of the declared seats so far, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a new entrant in these elections, made impressive inroads by winning 18 seats so far.

A total of 192 seats in Ahmedabad, 72 in Rajkot, 64 in Jamnagar, 52 in Bhavnagar, 76 in Vadodara and 120 in Surat were up for grabs in the elections.

The AAP had fielded 470 candidates across the six corporations.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel expressed gratitude to the voters and BJP workers for the results.

"The grand victory of the BJP in these elections is the victory of the people of Gujarat. This is a grand victory of the politics of development of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Rupani said.

"The people of Gujarat have provided a subject to political analysts who can now study how the concept of anti-incumbency does not apply in the state," he said.

"Many thanks and congratulations to all the winning candidates, BJP office-bearers, workers and the voters of Gujarat for the glorious victory of Bharatiya Janata Party in the elections," Patel tweeted.