Hindustan Times, New Delhi :
Prime Minister Narendra Modi before a speech at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Monday after winning assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party won the Gujarat assembly elections for a record sixth straight time on Monday ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Results have been declared in 177 constituencies, with the BJP winning 97 of them.
The Gujarat results turned out to be a seesaw, with the BJP and Congress running neck-and-neck in early trends. Around midday, the BJP pulled ahead, and by 6.30pm, it had won 95 seats and was leading in four. The majority mark in the 182-member assembly is 92.
The Election Commission of India declared the results on eciresults.nic.in. The Congress won 75 seats and was leading in two for a possible total of 77, compared to 61 in the 2012 elections.
The win was not as big as the BJP expected. Party leaders had aimed for 150-plus seats, but faced a tough challenge from a resurgent Congress led by Rahul Gandhi, as well as young Patidar and Dalit leaders Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mewani.
