Indian Prime Minister Modi’s party wins big in Gujarat elections

• The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 156 of the 182 seats in Gujarat.
• The margin of victory marks the party’s best-ever showing in the state.

Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saw a resounding victory for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday, giving the leader and his Hindu-nationalist party a boost ahead of the general election in 2024.

Following voting earlier this month, the BJP won 156 of the state assembly’s 182 seats, marking the party’s best-ever showing in the state, which has always been a BJP stronghold.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took five seats, while the main opposition Indian National Congress took 17 seats.

The election in the state of more than 60 million people, as well as the margin of victory, was keenly followed as a test of Modi’s support before India’s next general election, in which he is anticipated to run for a third term.

The Gujarati people were praised by the prime minister in a tweet he issued on Thursday night, who also expressed his “overcome with emotions” over the outcome.

“People blessed politics of development and at the same time expressed a desire that they want this momentum to continue at a greater pace,” Modi wrote.

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Congress won 40 of the 68 available assembly seats in another state election in Himachal Pradesh’s northern area, and will now form the government. Results from the roughly 6 million-person state were also made public on Thursday, with the BJP winning 25 seats and three going to independent candidates.

Despite what his detractors claim are economic difficulties and escalating religious intolerance in India under Modi, he continues to enjoy substantial support from the Hindu majority there.

He conducted a comprehensive electoral campaign in Gujarat, where the BJP has held power for more than 25 years. Before taking office as prime minister in 2014, Modi ruled the state as chief minister for more than ten years.

More than 1,000 individuals died in the state’s 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots, the majority of them Muslims, while Modi served as its chief minister.

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