Election Result: Gujarat Now More Vibrant as Tsu'Namo' Drowns State in Saffron; PM Says 'BJP 1st Choice for Everyone'

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched 23 out of 27 Scheduled Tribe seats in Gujarat as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the new entrant in the state’s politics, swept aside Congress to find a footing in the tribal belt. Although it could win only one seat, the AAP emerged as a direct challenger to BJP in nine of the 27 ST-reserved seats.

The Congress won three seats, slipping big from its 2017 tally of 14 seats. The Bharatiya Tribal party (BTP), which had in 2017 polls won two seats in alliance with the Congress, was routed in all the 24 seats it was contesting.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM seem to have dented the Congress’s sway over votes of minorities in Gujarat in the just concluded Assembly polls, bringing down the main Opposition party’s vote margin considerably in various seats across the state. The minorities, primarily Muslims, have been loyal voters of the Congress for the last several decades, especially after the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

The Aam Aadmi Party will become eligible to get office space allotted by the central government in a prime location in the national capital after it is officially recognised as a national party by the Election Commission of India. The party has already an office on the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg allotted by the Delhi government as the city’s ruling party.

The president of the national party is also eligible to get a government accommodation.

According to an office memorandum by the erstwhile Union Urban Development Ministry dated July 31, 2014, accommodation would be provided for a period of three years during which the party would acquire a plot of land in an institutional area and will construct its own accommodation for the party office.

In a break from the past, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday made a clean sweep in Kutch district bordering Pakistan by winning all the six Assembly constituencies in the region. The Congress, which carried out a silent campaign in rural areas, failed to retain even the two seats it had won last time.

The debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) failed to win seats, but caused enough damage to the Congress, even leading to its defeat in its stronghold Rapar. Kutch district has six Assembly constituencies – Abdasa, Bhuj, Rapar – all bordering Pakistan – and Mandvi, Anjar and Gandhidham. The district has around 16 lakh voters.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Thursday alleged that liquor and money were used liberally in the Gujarat Assembly elections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won a huge victory in Gujarat, misused the government machinery, he alleged.

“Liquor and money were used in the election,” Patole told reporters in Mumbai.

1-Kirtisinh Vaghela, MLA from Kankrej seat in Banaskantha district and Minister of State for Primary, Secondary and Adult Education lost to the Congress’ Amrutji Thakor, the brother of Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor.

2-Former cabinet minister and sitting MLA from Chanasma seat in Patan district, Dilip Thakor, lost to the Congress’s Dinesh Thakor by a thin margin of some 1,300 votes.

3-Another former cabinet-rank minister Babu Bokhiria lost to his arch rival Arjun Modhwadia of the Congress from Porbandar.

4-Raman Patel, MLA from Vijapur, lost to their Congress rival.

5-Mahesh Raval, sitting Khambhat MLA, also lost to their Congress rival.

6-In a surprising result, six-time MLA from Gariadhar seat in Bhavnagar district, Keshu Nakrani, lost to the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Sudhir Vaghani.

7-Another independent candidate Dharmendrasinh Vaghela, also a BJP rebel, won from the seat while the BJP’s official candidate Ashvin Patel came second.

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday said the party is not discouraged by its poor show in the Gujarat Assembly polls, and vowed to work to strengthen the outfit in the western State. Contesting the Assembly elections in Gujarat for the first time, AIMIM had fielded candidates in 13 seats but drew a blank till the latest reports came in.

Despite the results not going its way, the AIMIM is not discouraged, Owaisi said in a video posted by the party on its official twitter account.

He thanked the voters who voted for the party and also said the party respects the people’s decision. AIMIM would discuss its performance, remove shortcomings and make efforts to strengthen the party in the future, he said.

Thursday’s political thriller ended with a mixed bag for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the saffron party broke its own record in Gujarat but ended up losing Himachal Pradesh to Congress as the hill state upheld its ‘Riwaaz’ of voting out the incumbent. READ MORE

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Gujarat had listened to him when he had asked the people to break his record, in turn giving the biggest mandate to the BJP in the state’s electoral history. He also said he had promised the people that he will work hard so that “Bhupendra can break Narendra’s record”, in a reference to his exhortation for a higher tally for the Bhupendra Patel-led state government during his relentless campaign ahead of the assembly elections. READ MORE

“The last few elections should be analysed on a big canvas. Those who call themselves neutral, who need to be neutral, where they stand, when and how they change colours? And how they play the game, it is very important for the country to know this,”  said PM Modi.

Trinamool Congress on Thursday asserted that the BJP’s victory in Gujarat assembly elections will not have any impact on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the eastern state.

TMC, however, said it will analyse the results of the assembly polls that went in favour of the saffron party.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday thanked the people for helping the AAP “breach the BJP’s fortress” in Gujarat and asserted that the party would win the state the next time.

In a video message, Kejriwal said though the AAP did not win many seats in Gujarat, the votes it secured helped it attain the status of a national party.

The AAP won five seats and secured a vote share of 12.92 per cent in the Gujarat assembly elections, as declared by the State Election Commission.

“I am thankful to the people of Gujarat for helping us attain the status of national party. Very few parties enjoy the status and now we are one of them. Ours is only a 10-year-old party,” the Delhi chief minister said.

The BJP’s victory in the Gujarat assembly polls is a testament to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s politics of development, party president JP Nadda said on Thursday as he mocked the Aam Aadmi Party saying both its chief ministerial candidate and state unit head lost the elections.

Nadda thanked the BJP workers for their hard work in Himachal Pradesh also, where the party lost to the Congress, saying the “raj may have changed, but ‘riwaz’ also changed as there was a gap of less than 1 per cent in vote share of the top two parties”.

In his address to BJP workers at the party headquarters in the presence of Modi and other senior leaders, Nadda also complimented the party workers from Delhi too for a spirited show in MCD elections, saying the AAP government in the national capital created hurdles in the functioning of civic bodies which were ruled by the BJP.

BJP won 24 out of 27 ST reserved seats in Gujarat with an increase of 12 seats as compared to the last elections. BJP’s candidate Mohan Konkani won from Vyara (ST), which was held by Congress since independence.

The enduring sway Prime Minister Narendra Modi has on the Gujarati consciousness has led the BJP to the best-ever tally for any party in the state assembly polls, reducing to insignificance people’s perceived discontent with issues like inflation and local leadership.

In his barnstorming campaign across the state in which he addressed 31 rallies and led three road shows, Modi travelled through various regions of his home state, urging voters to make “Bhupendra break the records of Narendra”, an exhortation for a higher tally for the Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel-led government than what he had got while helming the state for nearly 13 years. And it is evident that voters have listened to him.

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and Patidar leader Hardik Patel on Thursday defeated Amarsinh Thakor of the Aam Aadmi Party in urban Viramgram assembly by 51707 votes. While Patel polled 98627 votes, Thakor got 47072 votes. Lakhabhai Bharwad of Congress, the sitting MLA of Viramgram, polled 42412 votes.

Local strongman and incumbent MLA Kandhal Jadeja of Samajwadi Party on Thursday retained the Kutiyana assembly seat, defeating his nearest BJP rival Dheliben Odedara by 26712 votes. While Jadeja polled 60163 votes, Odedara got 33532 votes. Bhimabhai Makvana of AAP polled 19273 votes.

Jadeja had repeatedly told voters during the poll campaign to forget about “lotus and hand” (poll symbols of BJP and Congress) and to make cycle, his symbol, run this time in the Kutiayana constituency.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said the resounding victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Gujarat Assembly polls underlined the people’s faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. It was the result of a “pro-incumbency wave” for the party which is in power in Gujarat for 27 years, Fadnavis said.

“I had campaigned for some candidates in Gujarat, and the credit (for the victory) goes to the work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah. People continued to put their faith in Modi as they believe only he can deliver development,” the BJP leader told reporters.

“It was natural for the opposition to claim that there was an anti-incumbency wave in the state. However, during the campaign, I felt there was a pro-incumbency wave and the results validated it,” Fadnavis added.