The 2017 Gujarat election results show the BJP has performed better in urban parts of the state than semi-urban and rural areas, where the Congress did exceedingly well, as compared to the 2012 polls.
The results suggest the BJP has improved its performance in central Gujarat, which largely accounts for the urban constituencies. On the other hand, a majority of seats the Congress won are from the rural parts, according to Mint.
While the BJP won 44 seats of the 55 urban constituencies in central Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot, the Congress bagged the remaining 11 seats. Of the 127 semi-urban and rural seats, the Congress has won 68 seats and the BJP 55, the newspaper added.
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The Indian Express reported that while BJP’s margin on an average in the urban areas stood at 44,295 votes (up from 37805 in 2012), while in rural areas, its average winning margin was just 16,483 votes (marginally down from 16,688 in 2012.)
On an average, BJP’s victory margin stood at 29,968 votes across 99 assembly segments it won in 2017 elections. In 2012, the average BJP victory margin stood at 26,236 votes across 115 seats won by it. In contrast, the Congress’ lead across 77 assembly seats translates into a lead of 10.28 lakh votes over the BJP. However, about 88% (9,07,910 votes) of Congress leads come from rural areas, while only about 12% (1,20,043) of the winning margin came from winning urban seats across the state, The Indian Express report added.
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The Mint report added that the results also show that the BJP beat the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress in all regions of Gujarat except the Kutch-Saurashtra region, which accounts for 54 seats, while the Congress and its allies improved its tally from 61 seats in 2012 to 80 in rural parts.
“There was some resentment over demonetisation and the goods and services tax (GST), especially among small traders. But the Union government moved swiftly two months back and announced several relief measures and changes in the GST structure. Also, the urban and the semi-urban voter in Gujarat is by and large happy with the BJP governance in Gujarat,” a BJP leader, who was part of the party’s Gujarat team that was tasked with the 16 seats in the Surat region of which the BJP won in 15, told Mint.
