Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], December 8 (ANI): The BJP scored a landslide victory in Gujarat assembly polls and Congress made a comeback in Himachal Pradesh after five years. Here is the final tally of seats in Gujarat which has 182 member assembly and Himachal Pradesh which has 68 seats in the results declared on Thursday.
Gujarat: BJP 156, Congress 17, AAP 5, Independents 3, Samajwadi Party 1
Himachal Pradesh: Congress 40, BJP 25, Independents 3.
The polling for Himachal Pradesh was held on November 12 and in Gujarat in two phases on December 1 and 5. (ANI)
BJP sweeps Gujarat Assembly polls, CM Bhupendra Patel scripts record win
By Ankur Gupta
Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], December 8 (ANI): The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday recorded a historic win in Gujarat, winning 156 seats.
Congress finished a distant second at 17 while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the new electoral entrant in Gujarat won 5 seats. The Samajwadi Party (SP) won a lone seat and three Independent candidates, too, registered wins.
Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, too, scripted history, winning the Ghatlodia constituency by a record margin of about 1,92,000 votes. This constituency has given Gujarat two of its chief ministers – Anandiben Patel and the current CM.
AAP CM Face Isudan Gadhvi lost the Khambhaliya seat to BJP candidate Hardasbhai Bera by 19,000 votes. Gujarat’s MoS Home, Harsh Sanghavi, too, won the Majura constituency with a margin of 1,16,000.
BJP MLA Kishor Kanani won the Varachha seat of Surat, defeating AAP candidate Alpesh Kathiriya while AAP Gujarat chief Gopal Italia also had to taste defeat against the BJP’s Vinod Moradiya. Debutant from Jamnagar North constituency, cricketer Ravindrasinh Jadeja’s wife Rivaba Jadeja also won her seat by 88,119 votes. Hardik Patel, former PAAS leader who joined BJP ahea dof the polls, bagged 49.64 per cent votes on course to winning the Viramgam constituency.
Former BJP MLA Dhavalsinh Zala, who fought as an Independent this time, defeated the ruling party’s Bhikhiben Parmar by around 6,000 votes. Congress candidate from Vadgam, Jignesh Mevani, who was trailing during the early rounds of counting, later won the seat by around 4,000 votes.
Congress leader and former Leader of Opposition Arjun Modhwadia won from the Porbandar constituency, defeating BJP candidate Babu Bokhiriya by over 8,000 votes while Kandhal Jadeja, who was denied a ticket by the NCP, fought on a Samajwadi Party ticket to win. He got the better of BJP’s Dheliben Odedara.
Significantly, BJP won the Morbi seat where the party had fielded Kantilal Amrutiya, who saved lives and courted headlines as the ‘hero of Morbi’ after the bridge collapse.
Among the important seats that BJP won this time were Congress bastions Mahudha and Thasra of Kheda, Borsad of Anand and Vyara. These seats which were held by Congress since Independence. Mohan Konkani of the BJP bagged this prestigious Vyara seat.
The BJP also won 24 out of 27 ST reserved seats in Gujarat, an increase of 12 seats as compared to the last elections. The tribals, too, voted BJP in huge numbers. The BJP’s 7th consecutive Assembly poll win in Gujarat is also its biggest since the founding of this state in 1960.
In the last Assembly elections in 2017, BJP won 99 seats, Congress trailed close at 77 and NCP, BTP and Independent candidates secured 1, 2 and 3 seats respectively. Bhupen Patel will take oath as CM again on December 12, the BJP state president CR Paatil said earlier in the day. PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will attend the swearing-in. (ANI)
Himachal polls: Battles that went down to the last vote
Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], December 9 (ANI): As the result of Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls declared on Thursday, several candidates of Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party recorded victories by narrow margins.
In Bhoranj, Congress candidate Suresh Kumar won by just 60 votes. Suresh Kumar got 24,779 votes while BJP’s Anil Dhiman got 24,719 votes. In Bilaspur, BJP’s Trilok Jamwal won by a margin of only 267 votes. BJP’s Randhir Sharma won Sri Naina Deviji constituency by 171 votes. In Sujanpur constituency, Congress Rajinder Singh won by 399 votes.
In Shillai constituency, Congress’ Harshwardhan Chauhan defeated BJP candidate Baldev Singh by only 382 votes. Congress candidate Nand Lal won by 567 votes in Rampur, defeating BJP’s Kaul Singh.
In Darang constituency, BJP candidate Puran Chand defeated Congress’ Kaul Singh by 618 votes.
Congress candidate Kuldeep Singh Pathania defeated BJP’s Vikram Singh by 1,567 votes. BJP candidate Inder Singh managed to win Balh constituency by a margin of 1,307 votes. BJP candidateBikram Singh won Jaswan-Pragpur seat by 1,789 votes.
Congress candidate Ravi Thakur won Lahaul and Spiti seat by a margin of 1,616 votes. In Nahan, Congress’ Ajay Solanki won by 1,639 votes. Confirming that all votes had been counted, the Election Commission on Thursday late evening said that Congress bagged a total of 40 seats in the Assembly, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finished at 25 seats.
The Independents won three seats while the AAP failed to open its account in the state. In terms of vote share in Himachal, Congress was only marginally ahead of the BJP with 43.88 per cent of votes. The BJP finished a close second bagging 42.99 per cent of the total votes polled.
The rest garnered a 10.4 per cent vote share in the hill-state. The poll victory for the Congress was the latest instance of Himachal living up to its time-honoured tradition of not voting back the incumbent. (ANI)
