Summary:
Ahmedabad, Dec 9 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party won five seats and secured 13 per cent of the popular vote in Gujarat, in a performance that belied its high-decibel campaign in the state but cleared the way for it to become a national party.
During the campaign, the party positioned itself and its national convenor Kejriwal as the sole challenger of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi respectively.
Vote counting on Thursday, however, showed that the party succeeded more in splitting opposition votes and helping the BJP score a historic win.
It also failed to replace the Congress party as the principal opposition in the state.
Despite the AAP cutting into its votes, the Congress still polled 27 per cent votes and won 17 seats.
In several constituencies, especially in the Saurashtra region, the AAP seriously hurt the Congress party’s prospects as the contest turned three-cornered with BJP succeeding to keep its core voters intact.
AAP’s Gujarat chief Gopal Italia, however, described his party’s performance as “an impressive entry into BJP’s Gujarat bastion” and said it was a victory of Kejriwal’s "honest politics.” Italia himself failed to win from Katargam in Surat, the diamond and textile hub that the AAP had sought to use as a launchpad for its Gujarat foray.
He lost to BJP’s Vinod Moradiya by more than 64,000 votes.
The AAP’s CM face in Gujarat, Isudan Gadhvi, lost by more than 18,000 votes in Khambhalia, a high-profile constituency in the Saurashtra region.
That said, the AAP did achieve an important feat.
The party, now classified as a state party, needed to win at least two seats and 6 per cent of the votes polled in the Gujarat assembly election to earn the status of a national party.