The BJP, on Thursday, swept the Gujarat polls, leading in a record-breaking 157 seats in the 182-member Assembly. While the AAP has made considerable gains in the Patidar and tribal seats, it was the worst show by the Congress this time, failing to capitalise on the gains it had made in the 2017 polls.

Bhupendra Patel will be sworn in for a second term as Chief Minister of Gujarat on December 12, the party announced Thursday. The oath-taking ceremony will take place at 2 pm on Monday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, state BJP president C R Paatil said. He was addressing a press conference in the presence of Bhupendra Patel at the BJP office in Gandhinagar, where party supporters were seen celebrating the party’s victory.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his gratitude to the people of Gujarat as the Bharatiya Janata Party registered a historic win in the state assembly elections.

"Thank you, Gujarat. I am overcome with a lot of emotions seeing the phenomenal election results. People blessed politics of development and at the same time expressed a desire that they want this momentum to continue at a greater pace. I bow to Gujarat’s Jan Shakti," PM Modi tweeted on Thursday.

PM Modi credited the BJP workers in Gujarat for the victory and lauded their hard work.

"To all hardworking Gujarat BJP karyakartas, I want to say - each of you is a champion! This historic win would never be possible without the exceptional hard work of our Karyakartas, who are the real strength of our Party," PM Modi said.

Meanwhile, the Congress has crossed the majority mark and won the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022. As many as 36 seats are required to win the polls, and the Congress secured 40 of the total 68 seats. 

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP leader Jairam Thakur has conceded defeat and is turning in his resignation from the CM post. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could be seen nowhere in the picture.

Also, Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Dimple Yadav has recorded a landslide victory in the Mainpuri parliamentary bypoll in Uttar Pradesh by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya by 2,88,461 votes. While Dimple, Mulayam Singh Yadav's elder daughter-in-law and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's wife, polled 6,18,120 votes, Shakya received 3,29,659.

The by-election in Mainpuri was necessitated by the demise of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

In the Rampur Sadar Assembly bypoll, Azam Khan's bastion, BJP defeated the Samajwadi Party. The BJP won the Rampur Sadar Assembly seat for the first time after its candidate Akash Saxena defeated his nearest SP rival Asim Raja by a margin of 33,702 votes.

Bypoll to the Rampur Sadar seat was necessitated after Azam Khan was sentenced to three years in jail in a hate speech case, and subsequently disqualified as MLA.

In the Khatauli Assembly bypoll, Madan Bhaiya of the SP-RLD alliance won the seat with a margin of 22,054 votes. He defeated BJP candidate Rajkumari Saini. While Madan polled 97,139 votes, Saini could manage 74,996.

The by-election in Khatauli was necessitated due to the disqualification of BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini following his conviction by in different cases. The BJP had then tried to retain the seat by fielding Rajkumari Saini, the wife of Vikram Singh Saini.

Image courtesy: PTI/IndiaTV