By the time this newsletter is published, results of last assembly elections of 2017 would have been declared by Election commission of India (EC). Votes are being counted at the time of writing of this article for recently held elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.As the trend suggests BJP is winning Himachal handsomely, however in Gujarat, even though BJP is all set to form the government again, it’s not the result one would have expected. Gujarat being the home turf of PM Modi and epicentre of Vikas wave, which Mr Modi rode in 2014 and has been invoking in almost all the election since 2014, makes it an eyeball catching contest.

For past 20 years BJP has been comfortably sailing in Gujarat and has been consolidating its lead over congress elections after election so in that perspective BJP has a lot to introspect. BJP is set to take a hit of 10-15 seats as compared to last assembly election which is unexpected in its stronghold of Gujarat. Another statistic, that BJP office bearer might play down in public, that might dent BJPs 2019 aspiration is the loss of seats ( when normalised ) it has to cope as compared to 2014 general election. BJP will be in loss of 50-60 seats when compared to Loksabha elections. It will be interesting to see how Hardik Patel plays his cards post elections and in lead up to 2019. Rahul Gandhi leading congress from the front and his new found aggression is another outcome of these elections.

This election also witnessed one of the saddest and most negative form of campaigning in the history of Independent India. One would have expected Gujarat elections to be fought on development plank but sadly ruling party tried everything to woo voters but development which is a significant departure from its 2014 strategy. With BJP set to form government in two states there are few questions that political pundits will be asking tonight.

• Will Rupani get the job back with BJP under performing in PMs Back-yard?
• Who will be the next CM of Himachal?
• Why were Modi/Shah confident of 150+, does it signifies that they are losing the touch?

ICSOA wishes BJP the best and expect them to run a government where interests of all section of the society are catered for. Election results will beavailable at EC website, below is the screen shot of trends/results from EC website.