Assembly Elections News

After BJP gained majority in both Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly polls, a New York Times report's heading read, "In India, Modi's party shows its might in state elections". "India's voters bite back against Prime Minister Modi's economic reforms" said a CNBC report. Meanwhile, BBC reported that Congress President Rahul Gandhi "gave a fright" to BJP.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the result of Gujarat Assembly elections was a "massive jolt" to BJP. "People in Gujarat do not approve of Modi Ji's model, the marketing and propaganda is very good but it is hollow from the inside," Rahul added. This comes after BJP won the elections with 99 seats, while Congress secured 77 seats.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday said that even though BJP is coming to power in Gujarat, the "real winner" is Congress. "They (Congress) may have lost, but have defeated the BJP," he added. BJP deprived the poor by "emptying their pockets" with demonetisation and the result can be seen in Gujarat, Raut told the media.

The BJP's chief ministerial candidate for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, Prem Kumar Dhumal, lost from the Sujanpur seat by a margin of 1,900 votes. "Personal loss is not of much importance. The gain that victory has brought to state BJP is important," he said. "In politics, sometimes one wins, sometimes one loses," Dhumal added.

The BJP on Monday appointed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Saroj Pandey as observers to oversee the election of a new party leader for the Gujarat Assembly. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Rural Development Minister NS Tomar will observe the party leader's election for Himachal Pradesh legislature. The Leader of the party enjoying majority is appointed as the Chief Minister.

Incumbent Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh has submitted his resignation to Governor Acharya Devvrat after the Congress' defeat in the Assembly elections. The Congress managed to win 21 seats against the 44 secured by BJP in the 68-member Assembly. The Governor accepted Singh's resignation and asked him to continue in office till the new government is formed.

On being asked why the BJP didn't win 150 seats in the Gujarat Assembly elections as he had predicted, party President Amit Shah said he didn't know the Congress would carry out low-level politics. Adding that people of Gujarat defeated politics of caste and religion, Shah said the BJP's vote share increased from 47.85% in 2012 to 49.1% in 2017.

As many as 1.9 million mentions of 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections were recorded on Twitter between December 1 and 18, Twitter India has revealed. Further, development (vikas) was the most talked about topic on the platform, while religion and Hindutva took the second spot. PM Narendra Modi was the most mentioned political personality, followed by Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar has said that those who called 'vikas' mad have suffered a jolt. This comes after Congress President Rahul Gandhi said that people of Gujarat did not support the model endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Out of depression and frustration, he (Rahul Gandhi) is saying anything," Javadekar added.

Of the 182 newly elected members of Gujarat Assembly, 47 have criminal cases registered against them as per their election affidavits, a study conducted by Association for Democratic Reforms and Gujarat Election Watch revealed. It said that 18 of the 99 MLAs from BJP and 25 of the 77 Congress MLAs have declared criminal cases pending against them.

At a meeting of BJP parliamentarians, PM Narendra Modi said their recent electoral victories were big as they now rule 19 states, adding that former PM Indira Gandhi had ruled 18 states when she was in power. PM Modi, who got a standing ovation at the meeting, also warned his party against complacency ahead of several upcoming state elections.

Of the 68 newly elected MLAs in Himachal Pradesh Assembly, 22 have criminal cases pending against them as per their election affidavits, an Association for Democratic Reforms report revealed. The report also stated that the Assembly would have 52 crorepati MLAs this term, against the 44 crorepati legislators in the last term.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while attending a party meeting in Shimla on Thursday, said the BJP could have had a better win in Himachal Pradesh. "I wish this result had a bit more of other things, such as beautiful victory. It's a kind of loss...we all know it," she added. She is in Himachal Pradesh as the party observer.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reached the 100-mark in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly after an independent MLA announced his "unconditional support" for the party. Ratansinh Rathod, who was elected from Lunawada seat, had contested the election after he was denied ticket from the Congress. Another independent MLA is reportedly expected to announce his support to the BJP.

In its review analysis of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections loss, Congress members have blamed infighting, sabotage by local leaders, and lack of resources as the reason for the defeat. Reportedly, some leaders also presented audio-visual proofs of sabotage. Congress' tally in the 68-member state assembly came down to 21 from 36 seats it had secured in the 2012 election.

Slamming BJP and Congress for not visiting mosques during the election campaign, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi accused the parties of ignoring the minority Muslim community. "They have ensured that they get enough eyeballs in temples. Couldn't they have clicked a single photo with Muslims?" questioned Owaisi. He had earlier said that the Gujarat poll campaign seemed like a "religious yatra".

Himachal Pradesh's CM-elect Jai Ram Thakur is a five-time MLA, who won the Seraj seat in the recently concluded elections with a margin of over 11,000 votes. He started as an active student leader in RSS-affiliated ABVP and later joined the BJP's youth wing in the 1990s. Thakur has earlier served as state Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

Of the 20 MLAs inducted in Gujarat's Council of Ministers, six are from the Patidar community, including former BJP state President RC Faldu and Kaushik Patel. Minister of State and three-time MLA Vibhavariben Dave is the only woman in the Council. Meanwhile, CM Vijay Rupani and Deputy CM Nitin Patel assumed office for the second time.