India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scored a landslide victory in the western state of Gujarat, in a strong performance ahead of the general elections due in 2024.
BJP retained its 27-year control of Gujarat – the home state of Modi. The BJP has not lost state assembly elections in Gujarat, a western industrial state, since 1995. Modi was Gujarat’s top elected official for 13 years before becoming prime minister in 2014.
The Congress Party wrested power from the BJP in Himachal Pradesh state, where it had won 39 out of 68 seats and was leading in another constituency, against the BJP’s 19 seats, the Election Commission said.
The BJP also lost a key election on Wednesday for control of the municipal corporation in the capital city of New Delhi to the regional Aam Admi Party, after leading it for 15 straight years, the commission said.
Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP has won the prestige battle for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), unseating an entrenched BJP. It has won 134 seats, eight above the majority in a House of 250. The BJP, which ran the campaign with PM Narendra Modi’s face, has won 104 — a not-so-bad performance after 15 years of continuous rule.
This AAP win is the first time it has unseated the BJP in any election. Its wins in Delhi have either been against the Congress or a vote of confidence while in power already. In Punjab early this year, it again won against the Congress. Party leader Sanjay Singh pointed to this:, “The BJP would always say AAP has only defeated Congress. Today, Arvind Kejriwal has given them an answer.”
The Congress was reduced to nine, which means its base in Delhi continues to erode. In the 2017 MCD polls — when the BJP won 181 of the total 272 wards, while AAP could mange only 48 — the Congress had managed 30 seats.
