How BJP set a record win in Narendra Modi’s state

It is yet another election and yet another saffron surge. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have exceeded expectations in the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022.

The BJP has set a record in the state and has won 156 seats. The state has 182 Assembly seats and the majority mark is 92.

Union Home Minister and BJP heavyweight Amit Shah is more than pleased. On Thursday morning, he set a 140-seat target. His party has zoomed past that.

Outdoing itself

The party has performed far better than it did in the 2017 Assembly elections. Back then, it was restricted to the below 100 score – it bagged 99 seats and Congress saw a surge.

However, this year, Grand Old Party has taken a beating in the state. It won 17 seats, which is around 60 down from its 2017 tally of 77 seats.

The BJP’s best performance in Gujarat before this was in 2002 when it won 127 seats in the elections, which were held months after the Godhra riots.

Also read: Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022: Big wins for BJP’s Bhupendra Patel, Hardik Patel; no luck for AAP’s Isudan Gadhvi

Setting records

With this massive victory, BJP has surpassed a record in Gujarat set by Congress. In 1985, Congress bagged 149 seats. Back then, Madhavsinh Solanki formed the social coalition KHAM (Koli Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim), according to a report on NDTV.

It’s ironic but with leads in only 17 seats, Congress has registered its worst-ever performance in Gujarat.

The BJP, on the other hand, seems to have done well in every region in Gujarat. It has created another record, winning 26 of the 27 seats in the tribal region, which has been dominated by Congress for over seven decades. In 2017, the BJP could only get eight of the seats, the lion’s share of 15 was retained by the Congress.

With the big win, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP is keeping its 27-year-old control of Gujarat. AP

The vote share

In Gujarat, the BJP has bagged close to 53 per cent of the vote share. This is a rise from 49.1 per cent in the 2017 elections.

Congress is struggling to cross 27 per cent, a huge drop from 41.4 per cent last time.

The Modi-Shah magic

The BJP’s massive win can be attributed to the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the master strategising of his main man Amit Shah. After the Aam Aadmi Party started massively campaigning in Gujarat, the Modi-Shah duo upped its game.

The PM increased his visits to the home state in the past eight months, making sure he reaches out to voters. He held 31 rallies and two major roadshows in Ahmedabad and Surat. Last week’s 50-km roadshow in Ahmedabad, which the BJP said was the longest-ever, reportedly saw the participation of over 10 lakh people in a matter of four hours. It was clear that there is no crowd-puller like Modi.

In his rallies, he struck a chord with the common man as he spoke about Gujarati asmita, nationalism, which always evokes emotions in voters of the border state, and peace under the BJP rule since 2002. He took on Congress, whom he said often deemed him.

Graphic: Pranay Bhardwaj

Shah did his bits too. He spent days after hectic days in Gujarat, sometimes overseeing election preparedness for close to 20 hours.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the home minister was in the state for weeks in the run-up to the election, closely monitoring the campaign, holding meetings with booth-level workers and instructing them.

“He [Shah] even wanted to know why one particular spot was chosen for election rallies, he reviewed the door-to-door campaign, publicity material — everything in detail. His meetings would go for hours till the wee hours,” a party leader from Gujarat told The Indian Express.

The party left no stone unturned in campaigning for Gujarat. From Union ministers to senior leaders, all did their bit, the most notable being Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Aditynath and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma.

With 31 rallies and two massive road shows, PM Narendra Modi did most of the heavy lifting for his home state. PTI

Making the right moves

Anti-incumbency was something the party was wary of. But Modi is not the one to let that get in the way. In September last year, in a surprise move, he replaced Vijay Rupani as chief minister. He did not stop at that and brought in a new Cabinet, which help quell any grievances against the BJP.

In Bhupendra Patel, a Kadav Patel, the state got a leader from the influential Patel community. CR Patil was appointed the new state chief in 2020 and came with renewed vigour.

Ushering changes at the right time, helped the BJP combat any negative sentiments the voters might have had.

Also read: Head-on | Message from Gujarat: Divided Opposition faces a rout in 2024 Lok Sabha election

Congress missing in action

The party put little effort into the elections and the results are for all to see. Rahul Gandhi continued his much-hyped Bharat Jodo Yatra in Madhya Pradesh and visited Gujarat for two rallies.

The party had a lot to gain after its performance in 2017. But it did not make any noise.

People in Gujarat reportedly told News18 that Congress had surrendered even before the fight had begun. Many of the party’s traditional voters were disappointed and left wondering if they should vote for the Aam Aadmi Party instead.

With Rahul Gandhi engrossed in Bharat Jodo, Congress paid little attention to campaigning in Gujarat and has registered a dismal performance. PTI

The AAP factor

There was a lot of hype around AAP and while it has made in-roads in the state, the impact has been feeble. It has won five seats.

The freebie promises made by the Arvind Kejriwal-led party did not impress the voters. Former TV anchor Isudan Gadhvi, the party’s CM candidate, lost his seat by 19,000 votes.

The party did not register a victory in any of the 16 Muslim-dominated seats it contested. However, AAP has gained much sought-after national party status in Gujarat.

Yet it is far from being a threat to the saffron party. Gujarat showed that it is Modi they trust. He may have left for Delhi in 2014 but his magic never fades.

With inputs from agencies

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