Team News Riveting
Ahmedabad, December 8
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained power in Gujarat with a historic mandate but failed to change the ‘riwaaz‘ in Himachal Pradesh – a state that has a history of not giving consecutive terms to any party.
The Congress returned to power with a comfortable majority in the home state of BJP president JP Nadda. But the entire nation’s focus was in Gujarat, the home state of country’s two powerful stalwarts namely Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
The BJP has been in power in Gujarat for 27 years but it never registered such a record-shattering victory in state polls. It had not only surpassed its own 2002 tally; the saffron party posted the best performance by any party in Gujarat. In 2002, BJP had won 127 of 182 Gujarat Assembly seats. The majority mark is 92.
In 1985, the Congress led by Madhavsinh Solanki had bagged 149 seats. But BJP’s 2022 victory had been outstanding. The party, till the filing of this report, had won 157 seats. However, Congress had to satisfy with just 17 seats. The new entrant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) managed to get five seats while four went to the others.
The BJP, which banked on the development agenda highlighting Modi’s ‘Gujarat model’, has now equalled the Left Front’s feat of seven consecutive terms in West Bengal. The CPI(M)-led Front ruled the state for 34 years from 1977 to 2011.
Most of the exit polls had predicted a majority for the BJP, but none indicated such a sweep by the saffron party.
According to the latest results and trends available from Himachal, the Congress won 39 seats and was leading in 1, while BJP registered a win on 18 seats and was leading in seven others. Three Independents also emerged victorious.
Aam Aadmi Party, which had contested on 67 seats, failed to open its account.
