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BJP to retain Gujarat, Himachal for another term? Counting begins soon
Gujarat, Himachal assembly poll results 2022: Himachal voted last month (Nov 12) for the state elections while Gujarat voted in two phases (December 1 and December 5).
One of the biggest poll seasons of 2022 is set to conclude on Thursday when the counting of votes will take place for the crucial assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the last two states that have voted to elect their new governments this year. Votes will also be counted for one Lok Sabha seat and five assembly seats - across five states - that polled on Monday. Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh - the home turf of the Samajwadi Party - is one of the critical constituencies where former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's wife, Dimple, is contesting after his father and SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was the Lok Sabha MP from the constituency, died in October.
In the run up to assembly elections, Gujarat saw a high-octane poll battle where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) challenged the 27-year-reign of the BJP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has earlier served Gujarat in the capacity of Chief Minister, held dozens of rallies over weeks. One of the highlights of the ruling party’s campaign was the 30 km roadshow held by PM Modi in Ahmedabad last week. Apart from these a high-blitz campaigning was carried out, which saw union ministers and chief ministers backing the candidates across 182 constituencies.
In a strategy that was questioned by many analysts, the Congress ran a 'silent' campaign - a low-key grassroots approach - to improve its 2017 performance, which happened to be the best in decades. The grand old party won 77 seats in the 2017 assembly polls in contrast to 99 seats won by the rival BJP. The party is predicted to win around 30- 50 seats this time in the exit polls (which often get poll results wrong).
For the BJP, a bigger victory than the last assembly elections has been predicted with a win in 117-148 seats by the pollsters. Meanwhile, the AAP - which has been trying hard to expand its national base - is likely to secure less than 20 constituencies, pollsters say. But Arvind Kejriwal seemed to be satisfied with the performance of the party, which got a shot in the arm on Wednesday by securing a victory in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) as it ended the BJP’s 15-year-rule. For a new entrant, Kejriwal said on Tuesday following the pollsters' predictions, it is a big deal to secure such a vote share in Gujarat.
In Himachal Pradesh, the state which has alternated between the BJP and the Congress since 1982, a nail-biting contest is expected if the exit polls are to be believed. The BJP currently holds 44 of 68 constituencies in the hill state and it will be interesting to see if it will be able to make a grand return for a second straight term.
Apart from bypoll results for Mainpuri, votes will also be counted in assembly constituencies of Odisha's Padampur, Rajasthan's Sardarshahar, Bihar's Kurhani, Chhattisgarh's Bhanupratappur (ST) and Uttar Pradesh's Rampur where polling was held on Monday.
