Compared to 2014 LS Polls, BJP Hasn’t Exactly Done Spectacularly in Gujarat, Himachal

Compared to the number of Assembly seats BJP won in 2012 in Gujarat, it is the loss of just 15 seats but in view of the huge sweep it got in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it has actually lost 66 seats in the present Assembly poll.

Caravan News

AHMEDABAD — BJP has certainly won the Assembly elections both in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and will form governments there but there is one big reason why the party leaders would be more worrying than celebrating the victory.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP had got 60.11% vote share in Gujarat and 53.85% in Himachal Pradesh and bagged all the Lok Sabha seats in the two states – 26 in Gujarat and 4 in Himachal. But in the present Assembly polls in Gujarat, the saffron party has got only 49.1% vote share and 99 seats. Compared to the number of Assembly seats it won in 2012, it is the loss of just 15 seats but in view of the huge sweep it got in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it has actually lost 66 seats in the present Assembly poll. Similarly in Himachal Pradesh, its vote share has come down from 53.85% in 2014 to 48.7% in 2017, and this translates into the loss of 15 seats.

On the other hand, Congress has increased its vote share both in Gujarat and Himachal in comparison to its performance there in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In Gujarat, its vote share is up from 33.45% in 2014 to 41.4% in 2017 and consequently it has got a gain of 63 seats.

In Himachal, though it lost power its vote share has gone up from the last election of 2014. See the table.