By Ashish Mehta and Rajeev Khanna, IANS
Ahmedabad : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Sunday led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to an emphatic win in make-or-break assembly polls, dealing a humiliating blow to the Congress party that had staked a lot in this election.
As trends from the counting of the millions of votes poured in, election officials said the BJP was expected to end up with nearly 120 seats in the 182-member assembly, only marginally less than the 127 it won in 2002.
The predicted tally, analysts and political workers said, was by any rate a stupendous electoral performance considering the multiple challenges Modi had to face in an election that some had warned he may end up losing.
Almost everyone credited the BJP’s showing to Modi, who has now emerged as one of the tallest leaders in his own party – and even outside. The final tally will be formally announced by evening.
By 11 a.m., a dejected Congress admitted defeat. Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, a former party spokesperson, said in New Delhi: “It is a victory for Modi, not for BJP.” Congress general secretary B.K. Hari Prasad, who holds charge of the state, added: “It is an organisational failure for the Congress.”
A jubilant Haren Pathak, a former minister in the previous BJP-led government of prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, told reporters: “Modi is our chief minister. He is our leader. He is our master hero.”
BJP national spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy used cricket language to make a point: “BJP has won the match, and Modi is the Man of the Match.”
Modi, whose legion of supporters set off wild celebrations all across Gujarat, sent a SMS message to party workers that said: “I am CM today and will be CM forever.”
It added: “I didn’t become CM on 7/10/2001. I have been CM forever. For me, CM means common man.”
Counting trends showed that the BJP had beaten back a strong challenge from its own rebels in the sprawling region of Saurashtra, where former chief minister Keshubhai Patel’s influence was expected to cause major losses.
It also managed to hold on to most of the other regions of Gujarat, retaining a majority of the seats that it won in 2002 on the strength of a sharp communal divide in the wake of the Godhra train burning and sectarian violence. North Gujarat, which saw the worst violence in 2002, went almost wholly with the BJP.
Even the alienation from the chief minister of a section of the ultra-nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad did not hurt Modi.
The Congress, which had hoped to win 80 to 90 seats, could not make any significant headway despite high-pitched campaigning by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, whose scathing attacks on Modi, like describing him as a “merchant of death”, drew a vicious response.
The Congress, which won 51 seats five years ago, is expected to get no more than 60 this time, officials said. Less than half a dozen seats would go to smaller parties and independents, making the contest a highly polarised battle.
Political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan said the BJP could end up with 100-105 seats. Others said the BJP tally could be as high as 117.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said the Congress could have performed better had it put up a strong candidate to match the stature of Modi, who was at the heart of the electoral battle.
But he added: “Sometimes fascists do win and they repeat their wins.”
No one in the BJP was listening though as the party celebrated a victory that is bound to cast a shadow on national politics.
The noisiest celebrations took place at the state BJP headquarters in Ahmedabad’s Khanpur area where thousands of men and women burst firecrackers, raised slogans hailing Modi and danced and danced. Many distributed sweets – and consumed them with visible relish.
Many BJP cadres sported Modi masks and wore T-shirts with Modi motifs that demonstrated the extent to which Modi personified the polls.
In stark contrast, there were few party workers at the Congress office across the river Sabarmati. Outside, the open ground was deserted but for the presence of a large number of journalists.
In New Delhi, hundreds of BJP members and supporters danced to drum beats outside the party headquarters, burst firecrackers and distributed sweets. There were plenty of slogans in favour of Modi and BJP leader L.K. Advani, who had refused to entertain repeated pleas from the party rebels to replace a larger-than-life Modi.
Exit polls conducted after the final round of polling Dec 16 had predicted a victory for Modi, giving the BJP anything between 92 to 110 seats. In the end he seemed to have done better.
This is the fourth consecutive victory for the BJP in Gujarat after the 1995, 1998 and 2002 assembly elections. Modi assumed charge of Gujarat in October 2001 replacing Keshubhai Patel.