Ahmedabad, December 20: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi won a third consecutive victory in the assembly elections and is likely to lead the race for prime ministerial candidate in BJP in 2014 while the Congress wrested power from the saffron party in Himachal Pradesh.
The BJP was leading in 118 of the 182 seats in Gujarat while Congress was ahead in 59. Former chief minister Keshubhai Patel's GPP on which the Congress hoped to defeat Modi fared very badly. The NCP and JDU were leading in one seat each.
Chief minister Narendra Modi won comfortably from the Maninagar constituency by about 86,000 votes against suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt's wife Shweta Bhatt. In 2007, Modi had won the elections by more than 87,000 votes.
His aide & former minister Amit Shah, who was arrested in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case won from the Naranpura constituency.
Gujarat Parivartan Party president and former CM Keshubhai Patel won by around 20,000 votes in Visavadar seat.
In the last elections in 2007, the BJP had won 117 seats and Congress 59.
However, the party was set for a debacle in Himachal Pradesh, a state which has stuck to its habit of voting out an incumbent government.
The Congress, which put up a spirited campaign under former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, is all set to return to power in the hill state.
As trends showed reverses for BJP, chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal appeared prepared for defeat.
"Whatever people decide is good. It would be good if they support us, and good even if they don't. I will welcome the decision of people," he said when asked to react on the trends going against his party.
Dhumal himself won from the Hamirpur defeating his nearest Congress rival Narinder Thakur by a margin of over 9,500 votes. He had won from Bamsan in 2007 by about 30,000 votes but after delimitation his constituency was scrapped and he had to shift to adjoining constituency of Hamirpur.
His rival and Congress veteran Virbhadra Singh said that he had put in his "best efforts" in the polls and it was for Sonia Gandhi to decide the party's chief minister.
"I had been given the brief to bring the party back to power and for that I had put in my best efforts. It is for our national leader Sonia Gandhi to decide who will become the chief minister," Singh said.
The party has already won two seats and was leading in 35 seats in the 68-member Assembly. BJP was leading in 23 seats and has won two seats. 'Others' led in four seats having won in one. Congress had won 23 seats and BJP 41 in the 2007 polls.
The BJP's hat-trick in retaining power in Gujarat added grist to political mill speculating on Modi becoming the party's PM candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections.
BJP MP Smriti Irani openly declared that Modi is her prime ministerial candidate. However, the party was cautious to comment on the issue. Suspended MP Ram Jethmalani said that the victory has "definitely" strengthened Modi's contention for being the PM candidate.
Jethmalani said the third straight victory in Gujarat Assembly Polls has defined Modi as the prime ministerial candidate for the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.
"Definitely," Jethmalani said when asked if the victory has strengthened Modi's contention for the Prime Minister's chair.
Chief spokesperson of BJP Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, parried questions on the issue saying Modi has always been an important leader in the party.
"We are not a dynastic party, which is led by a Yuavaraj. We function in a pure democratic fashion," he said without committing on Modi.
In a significant comment, Modi tweeted that it was time to move "forward".
"No need of looking behind...FORWARD...we want infinite energy, infinite courage, infinite patience..." Modi said on the microblogging site Twitter as trends indicated a clear victory for him.
Congress leaders sought to downplay their defeat and also the possible emergence of Modi as a PM candidate. Finance minister P Chidambaram said Congress is the "clear winner" in Gujarat having "contained" Modi and BJP.
They sad that victory in Assembly polls does not guarantee Modi's acceptability in national politics.
Comments
Add new comment