BJP sweeps Gujarat, cedes Himachal Pradesh to Congress

The BJP’s loss in Himachal Pradesh to Congress, a day after its defeat in the Delhi civic polls, took the shine off its “record-breaking” win in Gujarat, in the election results announced on Thursday. In Himachal, Jai Ram Thakur resigned as the chief minister, and the Congress will decide on its CM on Friday. Bhupendra Patel will continue as the Gujarat CM, the PM said at the victory celebrations in the national capital.

In Gujarat, the BJP secured 52.5 per cent votes, winning 156 of the state’s 182 seats, bettering Madhavsinh Solanki-led Congress’ 149 seats in 1985 and the 127 seats it won under Narendra Modi in 2002. This is the BJP’s seventh successive win in the state, matching CPM-led Left Front’s record in West Bengal between 1977-2011.

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The Congress plummeted to its worst ever defeat in Gujarat, securing only 17 seats with a vote share of 27.3 per cent. But it received a shot in the arm for the forthcoming electoral battles, including in Karnataka next year, with the win in Himachal. The win is the party’s first triumph after 18 successive Assembly poll losses.

In Himachal, where the PM, at the fag end of the campaign, urged the people to change the state’s “rivaz”, or convention, of kicking out incumbent governments, the Congress won 40 of the 68 seats, with the BJP winning 25, while the AAP couldn’t open its account.

Three independents, all three BJP rebels, also won in the hill state. Himachal is the home state of BJP national president J P Nadda, whose term as the party chief ends in January.

In Gujarat, Solanki’s record win had come on the back of his KHAM (Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim) social engineering. However, the AAP gnawing into Congress’ support base paved the way for the BJP’s stunning win. The AAP, which contested all the seats for the first time, won five seats with a vote share of 12.9 per cent, but its presence ensured the defeat of Congress candidates in its bastions in rural Gujarat and tribal areas. The vote share will help AAP get recognised as a national party, noted party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

In his victory speech at the BJP’s national headquarters in Delhi, Modi noted that the difference between Congress and BJP in Himachal was a mere one per cent when earlier the gap had been five to seven per cent. Attacking Congress, which through the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra is galvanising tribals in its support, Modi said the BJP won a majority of the reserved seats in Gujarat.

Despite its loss in Himachal, where party rebels hobbled it after it denied tickets to 11 sitting legislators and dropped over 40 sitting legislators in Gujarat, it is set to become its template for fighting the forthcoming elections. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said his party humbly accepts the Gujarat verdict, will revamp the party organisation and continue to fight for the rights of the people of Gujarat. Party leader Jairam Ramesh termed the result disappointing. “Congress was up against a three-party alliance of BJP, AAP and MIM, a campaign of provocative polarisation, the machinery of the state and Centre. Our vote share gives us hope & confidence for rebuilding and revival. We are the ONLY alternative in Gujarat,” Ramesh said.

In Gujarat, Congress’ Jignesh Mevani, BJP’s Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor, the young turks of 2017, won their respective seats, while AAP’s Isudhan Gadhvi and Gopal Italia lost.