After months of campaigning, the high profile Gujarat assembly elections got over on Thursday with the second and last phase of polling. Results will be declared on December 18.
On Thursday, voting take place on 93 seats in 14 districts. The second phase recorded 68.40 per cent polling.
Majority of the exit polls have predicted clear win for the ruling BJP. The saffron party has been in power in Gujarat for the last 22 years.
In the 182-member assembly seats, 92 seats are needed for a simple majority.
If the exit polls hold good on the counting day, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sheer magic that would help the BJP retain power for yet another time.
While comparing the NDA's rule with that of the UPA, Modi in all of his public meetings played the victim card and brought to fore the Congress jibes at him.
“You called me poor mother's son; Mani Shankar Aiyar called me 'neech', isn't it an insult of the state and the country?,” he asked. “Pakistan wants Ahmed Patel to be made the chief minister, I am your son...,” the prime minister asserted at various public meetings.
Modi had taken on the campaign onto himself and many of his ministers at the Centre were in Gujarat. BJP national president Amit Shah, considered chanakya of numbers, has stayed put in Gujarat since Diwali.
Like the BJP, the Congress campaign, too, centered around its president-elect Rahul Gandhi. He spoke of lopsided development and promised balanced development, should the Congress come to power.
He did get good response in road shows and public meetings, but if the exit poll numbers turnout to be true, it only means that the love that was showered on him did not translate into votes.
Patidar pro-quota stir leader Hardik Patel campaigned across the state, drawing huge crowds but the numbers emerging for the time being establish that the Patidar factor did not work. The Congress was hoping that like the 2015 panchayat elections, the Patidars would again vote for the party.
Similarly, the discontent among the OBCs and the dalits also does not seem to have yielded results for the benefit of the Congress, if the exit polls are any indication.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani thanked the voters for supporting the BJP and said that the “vijay rath” of the BJP would continue in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Gujarat Congress rejected the exit polls and said one should wait for the results.
