Modi thumps his 56-inch chest with Gujarat win

FLOWER POWER: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is garlanded by party workers in Ahmadabad.

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Keywords: Seats, Votes

Ahmedabad: Political pundits had said the Gujarat Assembly elections were a referendum on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. By that yardstick he has won—resoundingly.

The BJP won 117 seats in the 182-member Assembly, slightly less than the 127 it got in 2002 at the height of communal riots, to return the party to power for a fourth successive term, and third for himself. Modi can take full credit for the victory as he had selected most candidates.

As BJP offices celebrated across Gujarat and cheered him when he reached the party office in Ahmedabad, Modi, 57, sought to cement cracks in the BJP ranks by crediting the win to the "sweat and toil" of its activists and national leaders, fully knowing that he was the principal architect of the landslide win.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani, a staunch supporter of Modi, said his party's victory signalled its "comeback as the frontrunner in the next parliamentary elections".

The Congress, which was hoping to end Modi's six-year reign that began in October 2001, suffered a humiliating defeat despite the overt and covert backing of the BJP dissidents including former chief minister Keshubhai Patel.

The Congress won 59 seats: only eight more than what it had in the outgoing assembly.

The NCP, a Congress ally, won three seats, the Janata Dal (U) a BJP ally but which did not associate Modi in its campaign, bagged one seat while two seats went to independents. UP Chief Minister Mayawati’s BSP failed to make a mark, proving Gujarat was essentially a Congress-BJP battleground.

Modi himself registered an impressive victory from Maninagar

constituency, winning by a margin of 87,161 votes. Modi, who secured a total of 1,39,568 votes, comfortably defeated his nearest Congress rival and Union Minister Dinsha

Patel, who polled 52,407 votes.

BJP sweeps almost all regions

Defying predictions, the challenge of the BJP dissidents failed to derail Modi in Saurashtra. Barring central Gujarat, where it suffered reverses, the BJP managed to sweep all other areas.

Vote Share Analysis: South Gujarat

Ultimately, it were the north Gujarat and Saurashtra regions of the state that put Modi in a commanding position. North Gujarat, which saw the worst violence in 2002, went almost wholly with the BJP.

A quick analysis of the results shows that the BJP has done reasonably well in the Assembly seats in the coastal belt where the people were obviously impressed with the 'Sagar Khedu Yojna' for fishermen. Another key factor in improving the BJP's overall tally was the party's handsome performance in northern Gujarat was the return of milk cooperative tycoon Vipul Chaudhary to the BJP fold.