Bjp Back To Power In Gujarat

The Bharatiya Janata Party was set to sweep to power in Gujarat yesterday, having bagged 95 of the 182 assembly seats declared till late last evening and leading in 22. The BJP brass was gearing up for the swearing-in of a ministry led by Keshubhai Patel. The ceremony is likely to be held tomorrow evening.

Election result trends indicated that the BJP was set to bag 115 assembly seats six short of its 1995 tally of the total 182 seats. The party also looked likely to increase its Lok Sabha seats tally from the state to 18, up two seats over its tally of 16 in 1996.

 

Overjoyed by the partys return to power after 18 months of exile, BJP workers were in a festive mood, taking out victory processions for winning candidates, thronging Patels residence and reveling in the rout of rebel leader Shankarsinh Vaghelas Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP).

BJP national president L K Advani led the saffron sweep by triumphing by an impressive margin of about two lakh votes against Congress candidate former Director-General of Police P K Datta.

The Congress on the other hand had bagged 44 assembly seats till late last evening and was leading in nine others, having cut into the votes of independents. However, the biggest setback for the Congress was the defeat of its top state level leaders.

State Congress chief C D Patel and former Congress chief minister Chhabildas Mehta lost to BJP candidates in Jalalpore and Mahuva, respectively. Another former Congress chief minister Amarsinh Chaudhary, however, emerged victorious from Khedbrahma, defeating BJP rival V L Makwana by 25,645 votes. Amarsinh Chaudharys wife Nishaben Chaudhary also won from the Sabarkantha Parliament seat.

Vaghelas RJP was, however, virtually wiped out by the BJP. Blowing his trumpet (the RJP election symbol), Vaghela had claimed that his party would get about 105 Assembly seats but has managed only five.

The RJP could manage only four assembly seats till last available results and trends for the remaining seats indicated that the partys candidates were trailing BJP and Congress candidates.

Even ruling RJP Chief Minister Dilip Parikh was routed. He ranked a poor third, barely managing to save his deposit. His assembly seat was won by 30-year-old debutante Bharat Pandya who was the state BJP units office manager till before the elections. Parikhs cabinet colleagues were also rejected by the people.

The RJP also failed to open its account vis-a-vis Lok Sabha seats from the state, with most of the partys candidates losing their deposits. Vaghela will have to console himself with just one Lok Sabha seat in Bihar won by Anand Mohan Singh.

A splinter group of the RJP, led by former revenue minister Atmaram Patel, won three Assembly seats and was leading in another, while Mulayam Singh Yadavs Samajwadi Party opened its account with one seat. Only two independent candidates emerged victorious till last available results this time around as compared with 16 in the last assembly.

As a face-saving exercise, the RJP leaders are now pinning their hopes on the future, quoting the vote per cent polled. They pointed out that while the BJPs share was 47 per cent, the non-BJP front polled 53 per cent and, therefore, a Congress-RJP alliance would have wiped out the BJP. The state Congress leaders too have been reportedly blaming each other for the failure of alliance talks with the RJP.