Between them, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a record number of public meetings in Gujarat ahead of assembly polls. They were backed by a battery of Union ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states.
Even as polling for the second and last phase in Gujarat drew to a close on Monday, the “carpet bombing” by the BJP and back-to-back road shows by Modi in Ahmedabad appear to have paid off, if various exit polls are to be believed.
The exit polls have shown the BJP improving its tally of 99 of 2017 and the Congress going down. The Congress had won 77 seats in the last assembly elections.
The new entrant, Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party, is likely to open the account with a couple of seats, with a good percentage of vote share. The Congress, meanwhile, seems to be losing a sizable percentage of votes. These votes may have gone to the AAP's kitty.
If the exit polls prove to be true, the BJP is all set to rule the state for the seventh time in a row and probably better the record of 127 seats that it won under the chief ministership of Narendra Modi in 2002 after post-Godhra riots.
The BJP has been aiming to cross the 149 mark, a record created by Madhavsinh Solanki of the Congress in 1985.
As per the exit polls, the AAP is believed to have eaten into the Congress vote share. While the Congress' vote share is believed to have reduced by almost half, the BJP's vote share may reduce marginally.
The AAP’s campaign was headed by Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The Congress relied on local party leaders and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Ghelot. Party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi only came in at the fag end of the campaign and the latter addressed only two meetings.
If the surveys are any indication, people have believed in what Kejriwal promised and the anti-BJP votes got split.
The BJP had begun its campaign with the development plank and focusing on the “double engine government”. However, as the campaign drew to a close, it switched gears and brought in Hindutva with references to 2002 riots, serial bomb blasts and the Babri mosque demolition.
The Congress spoke about the works done by it in the past and its track record in the state where it is in power.
Like the people of Gujarat, political pundits are also eager to see the individual victory margins of the winning candidates in order to gauge the impact the AAP has had on these elections.
The Congress was fighting for survival but for the PM it was a prestige issue as any dent in the number of seats or vote share would reflect badly on him and the BJP even as the Lok Sabha polls are only one-and-a-half years away.
If the exit polls prove to be true, the AAP would become a national party and would strengthen its base further in Gujarat ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Soon after voting was over, Gujarat BJP chief C.R. Paatil was quick to thank the PM, the home minister, and the people of Gujarat. He expressed confidence that the BJP will not only win the elections with the highest number of votes, but will also improve on its vote share.
Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor thanked the voters and held that the exit poll figures were incorrect. To prove his point, he shared on social media the exit poll figures of 2017 in which the BJP was shown getting more seats.
In one of the television debates, AAP chief ministerial candidate Isudan Ghadvi claimed that the BJP would not be forming the government and in the first phase of elections (89 seats), the AAP would get 30 seats.
Himachal Pradesh
Two exit polls showed a dead heat between the BJP and the Congress in Himachal Pradesh where results could go either way.
The exit polls projected a range of 24-40 seats for the BJP and 26-40 seats for the Congress in the state. The AAP was projected to bag seats in the range of 0-3. The majority mark is 35 seats.
The counting of votes in both states will take place on December 8.
—With PTI inputs
