- Wednesday, May 08, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Celebrations broke out in Gandhinagar, the capital of the western Indian state of Gujarat, on Thursday (8) as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged a record-breaking victory in the recently held assembly elections.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and state BJP chief CR Paatil exchanged sweets while celebrating the saffron party’s victory. The party workers played musical instruments and danced to celebrate the occasion.
The BJP was leading in 156 out of 182 seats while the opposition Indian National Congress and its allies were leading in only 17 and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which threw a serious challenge to the BJP, leading in only five.
Gujarat chief electoral officer P Bharathi said that 182 counting observers, 182 election officers and 494 assistant election officers were on duty for the counting process.
There would be an additional 78 assistant electoral officers for the counting of votes.
In addition, 71 additional assistant electoral officers were assigned responsibility for the electronically transmitted postal ballot system in the previous polls
The elections were held in two phases on December 1 and 5.
The voter turnout in the first phase was 59.11 per cent while that in the second was 63.14 per cent.
Exit polls indicated a clear win for the BJP at the end of the second phase.
The BJP has been in power in Gujarat for more than two decades with prime minister Narendra Modi serving as its chief minister for the longest time before becoming the PM in 2014.
The Indian National Congress gave a tough fight to the ruling BJP in the last assembly elections in 2017 but this time, they were headed for a poor show.
