Gujarat Election Result Updates: BJP fielded 45 new faces by dropping sitting MLAs, 43 won

What workerd for BJP: Patidars

BJP’s most loyal vote bank, they returned to the party’s fold after giving it a jolt in 2017. Hardik Patel, who led the quota stir in 2017, won on a BJP ticket in this election. AAP’s choice of an OBC CM face in Isudan Gadhvi instead of Gopal Italia, a Patidar, helped BJP immensely. The decision to pick Gadhvi may have alienated young Patel voters from AAP. The appointment of Bhupendra Patel as CM also seems to have worked

What workerd for BJP: Development dollop with Hindutva

The time-tested blend of development and Hindutva yielded results again. The party showcased development projects such as Metro rail and riverfront, besides harping on steady investment inflows into Gujarat. PM Modi countered AAP’s free-power promise with Gujarat’s solar success, which enabled citizens to make money by selling power. Free rations for the poor was a plus. Amit Shah added a punch by recalling Godhra to remind voters of the “tough lessons taught to mischief-mongers in 2002”

What workerd for BJP: Organisational strength

From page pramukhs to WhatsApp chiefs, BJP’s organisation functioned like an unyielding, finely tuned electoral machine, as always. The challengers struggled on the ground with not enough people to staff the booths on D-Day

Of the 45 new candidates fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Gujarat Assembly elections by dropping the sitting MLAs, all but two sailed through. In a bid to nullify anti-incumbency sentiment, the ruling party dropped 45 MLAs including former chief minister Vijay Rupani.

What worked for BJP: MODI MAGIC

The peerless star of the show. Modi didn’t just blunt the AAP attack and aggravate the debilitation of Congress, he also emerged as the main poll plank — BJP asked voters to ignore candidates and vote for the PM, son of the soil. Brand Modi, which looms larger than ever before and to many represents Gujarat’s pride, dwarfed protests on local issues by doctors, teachers, former service personnel, health workers and talatis. Modi carpet-bombed the length and breadth of Gujarat with about 35 public meetings and a 50km road show covering 14 seats in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar

Gujarat BJP to hold a meeting of its newly elected MLAs at 'Shri Kamalam' party office in Gandhinagar on 10th December. (ANI)

SP also scores a seat in state

Samajwadi Party registered a victory, with its candidate Kandhal Jadeja — son of Santokben Jadeja, whose criminal enterprise had spawned the film ‘Godmother’— retaining his seat. Jadeja won from Kutiyana in 2017 as NCP candidate, but moved to SP. On Thursday, he polled 60,163 votes and defeated BJP’s Dheliben Odedara by 26,712 votes.

15 women MLAs, 2 more than 2017

Fifteen women, including Rivaba Jadeja — the wife of cricketer and BJP leader Ravindra Jadeja — were elected to the Gujarat assembly, of the 36 women candidates in the fray. Fourteen of the 17 women fielded by the BJP won their constituencies, and Geni Thakor was the only Congress woman leader to win (from Vav). In 2017 elections, 13 women were elected, and in 2012, 16.

This Amit Shah now an MLA

In 2012 assembly election, BJP had offered Amit Shah, a BJP councillor in the AMC, a ticket to contest from the Vejalpur. But Shah refused the party’s offer, saying that he will not contest from any other constituency than Ellisbridge. Ten years later in 2022, Shah contested the assembly election for the first time and won against Congress candidate Bhikhu Dave. Shah shares his name with the Union home minister and is popularly known as ‘Tyson’.

Flip works for most Cong turncoats, flops for BJP rebels

A majority of Congress turncoats or their family members fielded by BJP emerged victors on Thursday in the Gujarat assembly polls as the saffron party coasted to a seventh straight victory in the state, powered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma. But BJP rebels who contested as Independents weren’t so lucky, managing to win three seats, though they did cut into votes of both BJP and Congress. READ MORE

Rebels, independent candidates fail to impress voters

A majority of the 19 BJP rebels, who contested as independents were beaten in their pocket boroughs, as voters preferred the party instead of the person.

Independents too failed to impress the voters with just three of them making their way to the House. Prominent among these is Dharmendrasinh Vaghela who outdid six-time MLA and BJP rebel Madhu Shrivastava. On the 15 seats with 20% or more Muslim voters, the BJP improved its 2017 performance by increasing its tally from six to 10 seats

Gujarat Election Results 2022: Full list of winners & constituencies

BJP won a majority of the vote in Gujarat with 52. 5% vote share, easily trumping the combined 40. 2% won by Congress and AAP put together. Full list of winners

128 AAP, 41 Cong candidates forfeit deposits

While a number of BJP’s elected legislators racked up in large victory margins on Thursday, some contestants of major parties lost their security deposits —an indicator of clear rejection by voters. While 128 of the 181 candidates fielded by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lost their deposits, the Congress saw its candidates losing their deposits on 41 seats. A candidate loses his or her security deposit with the returning officer if the number of validvotes polled by the candidate is less than a sixth (16. 67%) of the total number of valid votes polled. READ MORE

10 of 21 winners sons of former MPs, Mlas

Of the 21 sons of former MLAs and MPs who had entered the fray in the assembly election, 10 registered victories and 11 lost their seats. BJP had fielded seven such candidates, out of which six won the seats — Pravin Mali from Deesa, Jayesh Radadiya from Jetpur, Kanu Makwana from Sanand, Yogendrasinh Parmar from Thasra, Rajendrasinh Rathva from Chhota Udepur, and Rajesh Zala from Kapadvanj. Bhushan Bhatt, however, lost the JamalpurKhadia seat. Of the 13 such candidates fielded by Congress, three won and 10 lost. The successful candidates include Tushar Chaudhary from Khedbrahma, Shailesh Parmar from Danilimda, and Amit Chavda from Anklav. Kandhal Jadeja has won Kutiyana for Samajwadi Party.

Uddhav Thackeray says taking industries to Gujarat played role in BJP win

Congratulating BJP for its “record-breaking and historic” win in Gujarat, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray took a dig at his party’s erstwhile ally on Thursday, saying its victory may have been the result of big industries being “driven away” from Maharashtra to Gujarat. He noted that the Gujarat elections were again contested under PM Modi’s leadership, and that was why the people had voted for BJP in a big way. Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray demanded that elections should now be held in Maharashtra. READ MORE

They finally taste success after two decades

For all the 182 elected candidates, Thursday was a rollercoaster ride of emotions – but it was more so for two candidates who were tasting victory after a struggle of two decades. Bhikhusinh Parmar, who won Modasa, is an election veteran as he has been contesting since 1995. He had fought as an independent then and got the third highest number of votes.

Over the years, he was also fielded by the BSP and BJP seats but registered no success. In 2017, he lost by a thin margin of 1,640 votes. Another successful BJP candidate is Jitendra Somani from Wankaner, who was contesting the poll for the fourth time. He had lost the 1998 poll as an independent. In 2002, his wife had won, but lost in 2007. Somani again entered the fray in 2012 and 2017 but to no avail. Jayanti Patel, who has been chasing his luck for two decades now, lost to Kantilal Amrutiya in Morbi.

One mayor’s win, another’s loss: Five former councillors win, eight lose

Himmatsinh Patel, Congress’s Bapunagar candidate, was the city mayor and has been an MLA for a term. While he lost the election this time, another former mayor — Amit Shah — found maiden success.

Analysis of the candidates who have been councillors of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) indicates that five of the ex-BJP councillors and one current councillor registered victories while eight others faced disappointment.

Bhupendra Patel, Amul Bhatt, Kanchan Radadiya, Amit Shah, Darshana Vaghela, Imran Khedawala, and Dinesh Kushwaha have got success, whereas Hasan Lala, Jamna Vegda and Bhushan Bhatt could not graduate from councillors to MLAs.

1 minister of Bhupendra Patel govt sinks, 19 sail home

Nineteen of the 20 ministers of the Bhupendra Patel government emerged victorious while Kirtisinh Vaghela was the lone minister to taste defeat. Minister of state for education Vaghela, fielded from Kankrej, lost to Amrutji Thakor of Congress by a margin of over 5,000 votes. Ten of the 12 ministers of former CM Vijay Rupani’s cabinet who were accommodated by BJP also sailed through.

230 Muslims in poll fray, just one makes it

Gujarat has sent just one Muslim representative to the assembly, from 230 Muslim candidates in the fray from 73 seats.

The number has consistently declined since 1980, when 12 Muslims were returned to the assembly after the Congress party deployed its KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) social engineering formula.

Voters had returned three Muslims — Mohammed Javed Pirzada, Gyasuddin Shaikh and Imran Khedawala — on Congress ticket in the last election. This time the party fielded six Muslims but only Khedawala waded through the challenge put up by BJP and AIMIM.

Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani climb caste ladder to reach House http://toi.in/9QqK-Y/a24gk

Five years ago, ahead of 2017 polls, theirs was the most vociferous voice against the governing BJP as they fought for the issues of their respective castes. On Thursday, the ‘Three Musketeers of Gujarat’ as they had come to be known in the last elections got elected to the Gujarat state assembly. While Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel and OBC leader Alpesh Thakor got elected as BJP candidates, Jignesh Mevani who had won as an independent previously, survived the saffron wave and won on a Congress ticket. READ MORE