In 16 Gujarat seats, win margins as thin as 200

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress were locked in a nail-biting contest in at least 16 seats in Gujarat, where the victory margin was less than 2,000 votes and of just about 200 votes in a few.

In seats like Dholka and Fatepura, smaller parties like NCP and BSP ate into the crucial votes which some described as snatching of near-certain victories from the Congress. The independents also scored big in some seats.

The assembly seats to have seen a photo-finish included Himatnagar, Porbandar, Vijapur, Deodar, Dangs, Mansa and Godhra. At many places, independent candidates, primarily rebels, ate into votes of either of the two main parties.

In tribal-dominated Dang, Congress managed a slender margin of 768 over the nearest rival BJP candidate while in Kaprada, another ST seat, the Congress sneaked victory by a mere 170 votes.

However, there were at least eight seats, where Congress candidates trailed their nearest rivals by less than 2,000 votes, including in Godhra where BJP’s C K Raulji won by just 258 votes. The NOTA votes counted 3,050 in Godhra and one independent

IN MANY SEATS, SMALLER PARTIES ATE INTO THE CRUCIAL VOTES THAT SOME DESCRIBED AS SNATCHING OF NEARCERTAIN VICTORIES FROM THE CONGRESS

candidate got over 18,000 votes to finish third. In the Dholka constituency, Congress lost by a margin of 327 votes. Significantly, in this seat, the BSP and NCP bagged 3139 and 1198 votes respectively. Similarly at the Fatepura seat, where BJP won by a margin of 2,711 votes over the Congress, the NCP candidate got 2747 votes. Congress lost the Botad seat by a margin of 906 votes where BSP bagged 966 votes. Three independents collectively got around 7,500 votes here. The BJP had its share of narrow misses as well.

Apart from the Kaprada constituency, the party lost the Mansa seat by a vote of 524 votes and the Deodar seat by 972 votes.

‘CONG REAL WINNER’

As the BJP retained Gujarat, its bickering ally, the Shiv Sena, said on Monday it was the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress which had emerged as the “real winner” in the election. Coming to power was no “big thing”, Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, adding that the Congress might have lost the polls, but had “defeated” the BJP.

“Although you see the BJP coming to power, the real winner is the Congress party. They may have lost, but have defeated the BJP,” Raut said. He pointed out that the BJP had been in power for over 20 years in Gujarat.

“...the model, which took the BJP on the path to power in the country, has failed. The reason is that none of the dreams you (BJP) showed the state and the country were realised,” Raut claimed.

The BJP “deprived the poor by emptying their pockets” with demonetisation, the Rajya Sabha member further said. “The result is seen in Gujarat,” he told reporters here. Raut stressed that the poll results indicated that the people were not happy with the BJP in Gujarat.

The BJP came to power in the country by citing the ‘Gujarat model’ (of development), he said.

“If people in Gujarat are not happy (with the BJP) today, then understand their psyche, understand what people in the country feel,” Raut said.

The BJP, he added, should understand the mindset of the people of Gujarat and “the reason the people are not happy”.