Who has reasons to celebrate? The BJP that has won Gujarat? Or the Congress that has brought the BJP's tally to drop compared with 2012?
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi flashing the victory sign and the Congress office standing desolate, the BJP has clearly snatched the opportunity to celebrate, and shifted the narrative to the fact of a victory, brushing under the carpet the fact that they have lost seats in the home state of Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.
But victory and defeat can be seen through many prisms, as they will be in the next few hours.
When the Gujarat leads are extrapolated with the number of constituencies the BJP won in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the figures now show that the BJP's tally has in fact dropped in 58 seats and the Congress has gained in 56 seats. Congress surely has not only reasons to celebrate, but an incentive to rejuvenate itself in the coming months when elections are held to the Karnataka and Rajasthan Assemblies.
Consider this: the prime minister made 38 trips and addressed more than 38 rallies between November 27 and December 11. While the party maintained this was done on the grounds of Gujarat being his home state, and the Gujarati media saying it was because he was the party's 'tallest leader in the state', it was clear as day that the manner in which Rahul Gandhi—who took over as Congress president in the thick of these elections—gave him a tough fight. As did Hardik Patel and other young leaders who espoused local causes and opposed the BJP and Modi.
The campaign was not just bitter as election campaigns are. Modi dragged in his predecessor Manmohan Singh with a charge that he and other Congress leaders were conspiring with Pakistan over dinner at the house of former minister Mani Shankar Aiyar to ensure Congress leader Ahmed Patel (read a Muslim) becomes chief minister of Gujarat!
While the Congress in the Rajya Sabha is pressing that Modi provide evidence, the prime minister's image has come to be questioned nationwide.
So, should the BJP gloss over the drop in seats despite Modi, credited with magic, campaigning this bitterly?
For the party, it is ultimately about winning Gujarat despite a 22-year incumbency. The leaders will attribute it to the prime minister's governance, economic policy, popularity etc. It will also be interpreted as a thumbs-up for demonetisation and GST, given that Gujaratis are clued in to business and trade.
But how far the BJP's chintan baithaks (if they indeed have them) or introspection into the results justified their celebratory mood remains to be seen.
Whatever Congress bashing they do in the course of asserting their victory, Shah and Modi know what this result means for them.
