Even as the Lok Sabha election results emerged contrary to most of the Exit Polls, in Gujarat opposition Congress succeeded in preventing the hat-trick by the BJP as its candidate Geniben Thakor won from Banaskantha seat.
Thakor, sitting MLA from Vav, on Tuesday defeated Dr. Rekhaben Chaudhary by a margin of … votes. The BJP won 24 seats. Mukesh Dalal of the BJP was declared victorious unopposed before elections when the candidature of the Congress candidate was rejected on technical grounds. His dummy’s form was also rejected and later the rest of the candidates in the fray withdrew their candidatures.
In the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019, the BJP had done a clean sweep by winning all the 26 seats.
However, the BJP candidates emerged victorious in by-elections held on five assembly seats. Arjun Modhwadia won from Porbandar seat with the highest margin of over 1.16 lakh votes. Modhwadia, a Congress stalwart, had switched over to the BJP just ahead of elections.
In the LS elections in Gujarat, state BJP president C R Patil won from the Navsari seat by a margin of over 7.73 lakh votes. Union Home Minister Amit Shah won by the second highest margin from Gandhinagar seat. He defeated Sonal Patel of the Congress by a margin of over 7.4 lakh votes.
Under the INDIA alliance, the Congress had given Bharuch and Bhavnagar seats to the Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party. BJP veteran Mansukh Mandaviya defeated Chaitar Vasava of the AAP. However, his victory margin came down drastically. While in 2019, Mansukh had won by a margin of over a margin of 6.37 lakh, this time around he won by a margin of only 85000 plus votes.
Victory on a single seat comes as a morale booster for the Congress. The party has been out of power in Gujarat for almost three decades.
For the BJP it has been a shocker in its model state and Paatil while addressing media persons said that they would work to rectify the mistake. Paatil was referring to the loss of one seat.
Except for Paatil, Shah, and candidates from Panchmahals and Vadodara, none of the BJP candidates could secure a lead of over five lakh votes. Much before the campaigning began, Paatil had given a call of winning all the seats by a margin of five lakh votes.
Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil thanked the people of Gujarat for the love they showered on the party. He said that the BJP could not win 400 seats due to its arrogance.
Also Read: Congress Wins Only 1 Seat in Gujarat, Shatters BJP’s Hat-Trick Dreams
