Monday, Dec 16, 2002
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By Manas Dasgupta
The caretaker Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, flashing the victory sign after the BJP's victory in the Assembly elections, in Ahmedabad on Sunday. — PTI
The Congress, which hoped to give at least a close fight to the ruling party, was left way behind with only 51 seats, two less than what it had won in 1998 and 12 less than its strength when the Assembly was dissolved in July. The Janata Dal (United) and independents won two seats each. The elections for Surat west, countermanded following the death of the BJP candidate, will be held on January 9. Under the spell of the "Modi magic," the BJP not only improved its earlier best of two-thirds majority with 121 seats in the 1995 elections, but also crossed the 50 per cent threshold in its vote share for the first time, registering an absolute majority both in terms of the seats won and the votes polled by the party. The BJP legislature party will meet here tomorrow to formally elect the caretaker Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, as the leader of the new Assembly. The date for the swearing-in of the new Ministry will be decided later in consultation with Mr. Modi, an official spokesman said. A humiliated Pradesh Congress president, Shankarsinh Waghela, accepting moral responsibility for the party's rout, described the BJP's performance as a "victory over the Godhra dead bodies'' and said the ruling party had proved successful in its politics of "dividing the society on communal lines." He accepted the "people's verdict'' but unfortunately the people had been carried away by the BJP's "Goebbels propaganda.'' The Congress sources said Mr. Waghela was likely to leave for Delhi soon to offer his resignation to the national president, Sonia Gandhi. Mr. Waghela, however, declined to comment on his resignation. A beaming Mr. Modi said it was the victory for the "self-respect'' of the five crore people of Gujarat and a "slap'' on the face of the "pseudo-secularists" who were out to defame them nationally and internationally. Thanking the people for reposing their faith in the BJP, he said "kamal ne kamaal kar diya'' — the lotus (the BJP election symbol) has performed wonders. Mr. Modi, who celebrated the "hat-trick'' of the BJP, himself won the Maninagar seat in Ahmedabad city by a record margin of over 75,000 votes while the highest victory margin of over 1.58 lakh votes was recorded by his close confidant, Amit Shah, in Sarkhej, also in Ahmedabad. Ten sitting and former Ministers were defeated, besides the Speaker, Dhirubhai Shah, and the Deputy Speaker of the dissolved Assembly. As for the Congress, with the exception of Amarsinh Chaudhary and his son, Tushar, and the veteran leader, Madhavsinh Solanki's son, Bharat Solanki, all other "sons and relatives'' of the leaders, including Mr. Waghela's son, lost. The election outcome made it clear that the BJP's gains were more in those areas which witnessed communal riots in the aftermath of the Godhra carnage. The party not only won Godhra, from where the former State Bajrang Dal chief, Haresh Bhatt, was declared elected, but also swept the entire Panchamahals, of which Godhra is the district headquarter, and Dahod district as well as the neighbouring Vadodara district. The Congress could not claim any of the 26 seats in the three districts. The Congress, however, performed marginally better in the Saurashtra and south Gujarat regions. The quake-hit Kutch district rejected the BJP, giving four of the six seats to the Congress. Among the BJP losers in the district were the former Chief Minister and the number two in the Modi Cabinet, Suresh Mehta. In the seven districts of the Saurashtra region, the BJP, which held sway in the last elections with 45 seats, suffered losses in eight seats while the Congress tally went up from five to 14. In north Gujarat, another riot-hit region, the situation remained almost unchanged. The BJP's strength came down from 37 to 35 and the Congress went up from 13 to 16 with one seat going to an independent. In south Gujarat, the BJP lost four seats to the Congress, which improved its strength from eight seats to 12, while two seats were taken by the JD (U). The BJP, which had won 18 of the 29 seats in the region last time, could win only 14 while the election for one of the seats was countermanded. The anti-incumbency factor also seemed to have had an effect on the election outcome. Some prominent BJP leaders, including the former Cabinet spokesman, Purshottam Rupala, the Finance Minister, Nitin Patel, the Forest Minister, Kanjibhai Patel, the Social Welfare Minister, Fakirbhai Waghela, the Cooperatives Minister, Vadilal Patel, and Ministers of State, Babubhai Bokhariya, Mulubhai Bera, Ranchhod Desai, and Liladhar Waghela, lost. The Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation chairman, Mukesh Jhaveri, and the Water Resources Development Corporation chairman, Gordhanbhai Mali, were also defeated.
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