Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress saw a marginal dip in their vote share in the Gujarat assembly
elections but the end result presented a contrasting picture in seat tally.
Approximately one per cent decline in vote share for both the BJP and the Congress saw the saffron party losing ten seats but the opposition party had a different outcome, bagging eight more seats.
Also, the ruling BJP may have lost 10 seats yielding ground in Central Gujarat but the popular backing for the
party in terms of vote share remained almost the same as the previous polls.
The repeat win of the BJP, powered by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saw the party settle at 117 seats with the vote
swing against it halting its march to retain a two-third majority.
The saffron party, which won the Gujarat elections for the fourth consecutive time, got 49.12 per cent of the vote
for its 117 seats as against 49.85 per cent for its 127 seats in the 2002 elections. The BJP had contested all the 182 seats at stake in both the elections.
Unlike the BJP, the Congress did not lose seats by a vote dip but won eight more seats to get 59 in this elections.
The Congress's vote share decreased to 38 per cent as against 39.28 in the previous polls.
Interestingly, the Congress got the extra seats despite fielding seven candidates less this time as against
180 in 2002. If one can use a cricket terminology of 'strike rate' to determine the success rate of parties, the Nationalist
Congress Party led the pack.
The Nationalist Congress Party, which entered the fray as an ally of the Congress, scored maiden victories getting three of the nine seats it contested. Janata Dal(U) won one seat with a vote share of 0.66 per cent.
Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party not only played spoilsport for the Congress by putting up 166 candidates and denting its vote bank but also failed to win a single seat. It got 2.62 per cent of the votes.
Uma Bharti's Bharatiya Jan Shakti also drew a blank despite contesting 37 seats. It polled 0.64 per cent
votes. Independents won two seats.
