In what is clearly a profound ‘Modi wave’, the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the Gujarat polls setting a new record of winning maximum seats with the highest ever vote share.

The Election Commission data till 7 p.m. showed BJP winning 156 seats in the 182-seat house, 57 seats more than its 2017 tally. The vote share has gone up from 49.1 per cent to nearly 52.52 per cent. The previous record was held by the Congress government in 1985 at 149 seats under Madhavsinh Solanki’s regime.

Gujarat BJP chief, C R Paatil, credited the victory to Prime Minister Modi. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the architect of this victory. The people of Gujarat have a special affection for Modiji.” During his whirlwind campaigning, Modi held 21 public meetings and three mega roadshows in Surat and Ahmedabad within a month. The Union Home Minister Amit Shah had conducted 33 public meetings covering almost every part of the State.

Amidst celebrations at the State party headquarters ‘Kamalam’, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, stated that the Gujarat verdict shows the people’s faith in Prime Minister Modi and the BJP’s rule. “The people of Gujarat have supported the politics of development and rejected the anti-national forces,” said Patel.

Congress’ vote share drops

Thursday’s results not only showed the Congress getting uprooted from most of the districts in Gujarat, its committed voter base was also seen shifting away. Congress’ vote share dropped to 27.3 per cent from 41.4 per cent in 2017. The delayed start of Congress’ campaign also raised questions about their preparedness for Gujarat polls. Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi addressed only two rallies — one each in South Gujarat and Saurashtra, leaving party workers and Congress supporters disappointed.

The voting that took place in two phases on December 1 and 5 had witnessed a lower voter turnout at 64.33 per cent, about 5 percentage points lower than 2017 at 70.66 per cent. However, despite the lower turnout, the voting was decisive as the winning margins on most of the seats won by BJP was higher than previous polls.

Foot-soldiers’ role

Analysts believe that the 52.5 per cent vote share for the BJP is also reflective of the continued Modi wave in the State, which faced strong anti-incumbency and resentment of party cadre under the Vijay Rupani-Nitin Patel government. The replacement of the entire cabinet and the incumbent Chief Minister Rupani and his deputy Patel was seen as a measure to pacify public anger and discontent. Even for the current assembly polls, the party had dropped 38 sitting MLAs and replaced them with younger blood such as Hardik Patel (Viramgam seat), Alpesh Thakor (Gandhinagar-South seat) and Payal Kukrani (Naroda seat). They won with higher margins than previous years.

“The people of Gujarat have believed in Modi’s assurance that he’s there to look after Gujarat, even while being in Delhi. The case in point is the campaign slogan, Double Engine government,” said Bharat Barai, a political observer from Rajkot.

Also, what has helped the party silently secure an unprecedented seat tally is its strong foot-soldiers, called page committees. “I congratulate and thank all the 80 lakh Page Committee workers, who have worked tirelessly to ensure this victory,” said Paatil.

The new entrant Aam Aadmi Party won five seats — four in Saurashtra and one in Dediapada, a tribal seat in South Gujarat. It now enjoys a vote share of 13 per cent. One seat went to Samajwadi Party. Former NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja won Kutiyana seat with over 26,000 votes.