Clean sweep for BJP in 10 states, UTs

New Delhi: In 10 states and Union Territories (UTs), voters gave the BJP a clean sweep in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections, with the saffron party, riding on Modi wave, repeating its 2014 performance in five states and two UTs.

The party with its constituents of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), the NDA’s political coalition with the regional parties of the Northeast states, also swept the elections in Sikkim, Nagaland and Mizoram.

Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP repeated its feat of landslide victory in Northern, Eastern and Western India with a vote share of nearly 50 per cent.

The BJP-led NDA also became the only non-Congress government to get a second term in independent India, while Narendra Modi became the third Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi to retain power with a full majority in the Lok Sabha.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) surpassed its 2014 tally of 336 to achieve a number of 353 seats out of the total 542 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP on its own bagged 303 seats across the country.

The BJP had a clean sweep in Gujarat, the home state of Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, Rajasthan, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana as well as in the UTs of Chandigarh and Daman & Diu.

In Gujarat, the BJP repeated its 2014 performance and won all 26 Lok Sabha seats for the second consecutive time in the Lok Sabha elections.

Shah, who made his parliamentary debut from Gandhinagar, won by 5,57,014 votes surpassing his predecessor and BJP veteran L.K. Advani’s victory margin record of 4,83,121 votes.

The saffron party also created a history in Rajasthan by making a clean sweep for a second time in a row in the past 67 years. It won 24 of the 25 parliamentary seats. Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), an ally of the BJP won another seat.

Ministers representing Rajasthan in the outgoing Modi government, won comfortably from their seats. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore defeated a Commonwealth Games (CWG) gold medalist and Congress candidate Krishna Poonia by 3,93,171 votes in Jaipur Rural.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat defeated Vaibhav Gehlot, the son of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Jodhpur. Arjun Ram Meghwal and P.P. Chaudhary won by handsome margins from Bikaner and Pali respectively.

The BJP also repeated its 2014 performance and won all the five and four seats respectively in the hill states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

In a first in Haryana’s electoral history, the ruling BJP won all 10 seats while the Congress and Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) faced humiliating defeats.

Union Ministers Rao Inderjit Singh (Gurugram) and Krishan Pal Gurjar (Faridabad) won their respective constituencies. Former Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son Deepender Hooda had to bite the dust in Sonepat and Rohtak respectively.

The National Capital of Delhi re-elected BJP candidates to all its seven seats. The vote share of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) shrunk to just 18 per cent, from 32.90 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls with the party slipping to the third position in five of the seven constituencies and a three of its candidates losing their deposits as well.

In contrast, the vote share of the BJP soared to 56.58 per cent from 46.40 per cent in 2014, and the Congress’ went up to 22.46 per cent from 15.10 per cent in 2014.

Sitting MPs Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma won West Delhi, Meenakshi Lekhi won New Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri South Delhi, Dr. Harsh Vardhan Chandni Chowk and Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari North East Delhi. Tiwari defeated former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

First timers, singer-turned-politician Hans Raj Hans and cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir won North West Delhi and East Delhi repectively.

The BJP candidates also won in Chandigarh and Daman & Diu respectively. Party’s Kirron Kher defeated Congress’ Pawan Kumar Bansal to get a second consecutive from Chandigarh. Lalubhai Patel too got a consecutive second term in Daman & Diu.

The saffron party won the two seats in Tripura, where it stormed to power last year ending 25 years of left rule.

It also won the two Lok Sabha seats of Arunachal Pradesh. Former Minister Kiren Rijiju won from Arunachal West, while former MP Tapir Gao won Arunachal east parliamentary constituency.

The BJP allies in the Northeast won the lone Lok Sabha seats in Sikkim, Nagaland and Mizoram. Newly-formed outfit Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) won the Sikkim seat, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party won Nagaland and Mizo National Front won Mizoram.

Published on: May 27, 2019 at 11:28 IST

IANS

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