NEW DELHI:
The BJP today looked set to retain power in Gujarat, with the party winning 46 seats and leading in 53 others in the keenly-contested polls to the 182-member Assembly. The BJP is all set to wrest power from the Congress in Himachal Pradesh as it won 8 seats and was leading in 37 others while the ruling party bagged four seats and was leading in 15.
The Congress, which had 61 seats in the outgoing Gujarat Assembly, looks to have improved its tally this time as it has won 44 seats and is leading in 33 seats so far. The NCP emerged victorious on one seat while the Bhartiya Tribal Party won two seats. An independent also won, while two others were leading.
The BJP, which has been in power in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state uninterruptedly since 1998, last time had won 115 seats. To form a government in the state, a party or a coalition needs at least 92 seats in the 182-member Assembly.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani retained the Rajkot West seat by defeating Congress’ Indranil Rajyaguru by over 54,000 votes. Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel was also ahead of Congress candidate Jivabhai Patel in Mehsana.
Among other prominent winners were BJP leader and Fisheries Minister Babubhai Bokhiriya, who defeated senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia in Porbandar. BJP’s Suresh Patel held the prestigious Maninagar seat, the former constituency of Modi, by defeating Congress candidate Shweta Brahmbhatt by 75,199 votes.
In Mahuva seat of Bhavnagar, BJP’s Raghav Makwana defeated independent Kanu Kalsaria. The BJP also won the Umbergaon seat in Valsad.
The Congress won Mahudha seat in Kheda district where its nominee Indrajitsinh Parmar defeated BJP’s Bharatsinh Parmar by 13,601 votes. Congress’ Alpesh Thakor is leading in Radhanpur seat against Lavingji Thakor of BJP.
Senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil is trailing against BJP’s Virendrasinh Jadeja from Mandvi seat. State BJP chief Jitu Vaghani is leading over Dilipsinh Gohil of Congress in Bhavnagar West. Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani won from Vadgam seat by over 19,000 votes while fighting as an independent with Congress’ support. He defeated BJP’s Vijay Chakravarti.
Senior Congress candidate and Leader of Opposition, Mohansinh Rathwa, defeated his closest rival from BJP, Jasubhai Rathwa, by a narrow margin of 1,093 votes. However, another senior Congress leader Siddharth Patel lost to BJP’s candidate Shailesh Mehta in Dabhoi seat.
Bhartiya Tribal Party chief Chhotu Vasava won by a significant margin of 48,948 votes over Ravjibhai Vasava from the tribal constituency of Jhagadia. Vasava’s BTP is a Congress ally. Besides, BJP heavyweight Dilip Sanghani lost to Congress candidate J V Kakadiya.
The elections for the 182-seat Assembly were held on December 9 and 14, after an acrimonious campaign, which was dominated by a face-off between Prime Minister Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. In the 2012 elections, the BJP had won 115 seats while the Congress emerged victorious in 61 seats.
The BJP has won every election since 1995 in the home state of Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. However, it was out of power for a couple of years due to party infighting and rebellion by Shankersinh Vaghela, who broke away and formed Rashtriya Janata Party government in 1996. The saffron party came back to power in 1998, and has ruled uninterrupted since then.
In Himachal Pradesh CPM won the Theog seat while Independents are leading in three seats. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is leading from Arki while his son Vikramaditya Singh won from Shimla(Rural).
Prem Kumar Dhumal, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Himachal Pradesh, was trailing behind Congress’s Rajinder Rana in Sujanpur. Out of eight ministers in the fray, three have lost while three others are trailing. Two ministers are leading.
Senior-most minister Kaul Singh lost the polls from Drang and while his daughter Champa Thakur suffered defeat at the hands of BJP’s Anil Sharma from Mandi. State BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti is trailing from Una while HPCC candidate Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu is maintaining lead from Nadaun.
BJP candidate Suresh Bharadwaj retained the prestigious Shimla seat while Anirudh Singh of Congress retained Kusumpti seat. Congress candidate Harshvardhan won from Shillai, wresting the seat from Baldev Singh Tomar of BJP while Govind Thakur of BJP scored the third successive victory from Manali.
However, senior BJP leader Maheshwar Singh failed to retain his Kullu seat. Main rivals BJP and Congress contested all 68 seats at stake. The hill state witnessed a record 75.28 per cent turnout.
The Congress and the BJP had 36 and 26 seats respectively in the outgoing House. Himachal Pradesh has a tradition of change in government after every elections and going by the trend, this time it appears to be the turn of the BJP which is upbeat after the exit polls predicted a victory for the saffron party.
The BJP ousted the Congress in 1990 and the Congress avenged defeat in 1993. The BJP formed the government with the help of Himachal Vikas Congress in 1998 and the Congress was back in power in 2003. The BJP made a comeback in 2007.
