Even as the BJP scripted a stupendous victory in the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, the Congress in Gujarat was in for a rude shock as the saffron party made yet another clean sweep, winning all the 26 seats in the state.
The BJP repeated its performance of 2014 when Narendra Modi was projected as the prime ministerial candidate.
Before the elections, there was a feeling in the Congress camp that the party would be able to win about 10 seats. Even the BJP leaders used to say that the party would have to work hard in eight to nine constituencies.
The saffron party relied heavily on PM Modi and Amit Shah for campaigning, and the latter won the Gandhinagar seat by a margin of over 5.55 lakh votes—the second highest margin recorded by a BJP candidate in Gujarat. Shah's winning margin beats that of party veteran L.K. Advani who used to represent the seat earlier.
C.R. Patil, seeking re-election from Navsari, defeated his Congress rival by a whopping 6.5 lakh votes.
Also read
- Panel pulls up Centre for failing to give EVM-VVPAT tally data for 2019 Lok Sabha polls
- Defeated by BJP's EVM hacking, party sabotage: Congress candidate
- Gehlot in damage-control mode after blaming Pilot for Jodhpur loss
- 'Priyanka did her job, but party, workers could not rise to occasion'
- EVMs a must for democracy, can't be tampered with: BEL CMD
Even Congress stalwarts from the state, including former Union ministers Bharatsinh Madhavsinh Solanki and Tushar Amarsinh Chaudhary and leader of opposition in the state assembly Paresh Dhanani, could not prevail against the Modi wave.
The grand old party was expected to do well after the 2017 assembly elections in which it restricted the ruling BJP to 99 seats in the 182-member assembly.
None of the issues raised by the Congress, including corruption, farmers distress and unemployment, worked for the party in both rural and urban areas of Gujarat. Urban Gujarat has been the BJP's stronghold.
The state may also voted to have a Gujarati as the prime minister for a second term.
