The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) target of achieving a hat-trick of clean sweeps in Gujarat came undone Tuesday, after it conceded the Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat to its rival Congress.

For the first time since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, the BJP has lost a Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, winning 25 of the 26 seats in the State. The saffron party had won all the 26 seats during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and had targeted to win all the 26 seats with a victory margin of 5 lakh votes.

See-saw battles

The BJP candidate from Patan, Bharatsinhji Dabhi, narrowly won the Patan seat with little over 30,000 votes where Congress candidate Chandan Thakor was leading the counting till 2 pm. The Banaskantha seat too witnessed a see-saw battle between Congress’ Geniben Thakor and her BJP rival Rekhaben Chaudhari. It was Thakor who finally emerged victorious with a margin of 30,000 votes.

The BJP bagged a vote share of over 61.86 percent, while Congress — which fought the 2024 LS polls in Gujarat in alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — had a vote share of around 31.24 percent. This is the first time in 10 years that Congress has won a Lok Sabha seat from Gujarat. The AAP — which fought on Bharuch and Bhavnagar seats — finished with a vote share of 2.69 percent. In 2019, the BJP had secured 62.26 percent of the total votes polled, while Congress had a vote share of 32.4 percent.

Shaktisinh Gohil, President of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) told media persons, “They (BJP) had claimed that they will score a hat-rick in Gujarat and win all the seats by a margin of 5 lakh votes. Leaving aside one or two seats, they did not get any such lead. I thank the people of Banaskantha that they have sent a daughter from Banas to the Parliament.” Thanking the Congress workers, Gohil said many of the Congress candidates in Gujarat fought the Lok Sabha polls through crowd-funding as the party faced funding issues.

Big Winners

For the BJP in Gujarat, the biggest victory margin was pocketed by BJP President and sitting MP from Navsari, CR Patil, who won with a margin of 7.73 lakh votes. Union Home minister Amit Shah stood second securing a victory margin of over 7.44 lakh more votes. Another Union minister (for health) Mansukh Mandaviya won from Porbandar with a margin of 3.8 lakh votes. Similarly, Union Minister of State Devusinh Chauhan who had contested from Kheda won by 3.5 lakh vote margin.

The Kshatriya anger against BJP and its candidate Union minister (for Dairying and Animal Husbandry) Parshottam Rupala — who made comments against the community during an election rally and later apologised — had little impact on the final outcome of the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat as Rupala won from the Rajkot seat with a victory margin of over 4.84 lakh votes. The Kshatirya community had demanded Rupala’s removal as a BJP candidate after the controversy broke out. However, BJP stuck with Rupala. Even in a seat like Anand which had a significant Kshatriya population, the sitting BJP MP Mitesh Patel won with a margin of over 89,000 votes.

BJP officials said that Gujarat continued to remain the “fortress” for the party despite loss of one seat. “The way the people have voted in support of the party, the foundation of the party remains strong in the state,” said a BJP spokesperson.

On Tuesday, the counting was held only for 25 of the 26 seats as the BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal had won the Surat seat uncontested. This happened after nominations of the Congress candidate on the Surat seat got rejected by the Election Commission and the other nominees in the fray pulled back their nomination forms.

Assembly Bypolls

Meanwhile, the counting for bypolls held for five assembly seats in Gujarat — Vijapur, Porbandar, Manavadar, Khambhat and Waghodia — BJP candidates emerged victorious. These victories will help raise the strength of BJP in the 182-member assembly to 161. Congress will have only 12 MLAs, as Geniben is expected to move to the Centre. In the assembly, AAP will have 4 MLAs, Samajwadi Party one MLA and two independents.

Related Topics