The BJP is set to form governments in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, party president Amit Shah announced on Saturday.
The BJP was on Saturday set to storm back to power in the hill state of Uttarakhand with a two-thirds majority in the 70-member assembly, officials said.
On top of a sweeping win in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party had won 14 seats and was leading in 44 others, puncturing the ruling Congress.
The Congress suffered a rout, with Chief Minister Harish Rawat losing from both the seats he contested: Haridwar Rural and Kichcha.
Rawat lost to Yatiswaranand of the BJP by 12,278 votes in Haridwar Rural and to Rajesh Shukla in Kichha by a slender 2,154 votes.
The Congress said he was set to resign later on Saturday. He is expected to remain in office until the BJP picks a new Chief Minister.
The Congress had won only three seats and was leading in seven other places. In two constituencies, candidates of two other parties were in the lead.
As the election results began to pour in after the vote count began at 8 a.m., BJP activists and supporters celebrated at the party headquarters at Dehradun and all across the state.
Despondent Congress leaders admitted that they had not anticipated such a huge defeat although they were not confident of a victory either.
Prominent BJP winners or those on the victory lap included Ritu Khanduri, Kedar Singh, Satpal Maharaj, Bharat Singh, Madan Kaushik, Dhan Singh Rawat and Saurabh Bahuguna, son of former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna.
The Congress had reasons to smile in Punjab, where, defying most exit polls which had projected a neck-and-neck outcome, it was set to return to power. Its candidates led in 64 of the 117 seats.
A party needs 59 seats to gain a simple majority in Punjab.
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine led in 28 seats, relegating the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had been confident of taking power in the border state, to the third spot (25 seats).
While Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal led from Lambi over Amarinder Singh (Congress) and Jarnail Singh (AAP), his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal trailed to AAP’s Bhagwant Mann in Jalalabad.
Counting of votes was also on for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, vacated by Amarinder Singh in November.
Incumbent Chief Minister Harish Rawat was trailing, officials said.
Manipur seemed to be inching towards a hung assembly with the ruling Congress and the BJP locked in a tantalisingly close fight to emerge as the single-largest party with the vote count nearing its end on Saturday.
Of the 38 results in the 60-member assembly declared so far, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was marginally ahead with 16 seats. The Congress has one less. The National People’s Party and the Naga People’s Front (NPF) won 3 seats each, while the Lok Janshakti Party bagged one seat.
As per the latest overall trends (including the seats already declared, the Congress – in power for the past 15 years with Okram Ibobi Singh as the Chief Minister – and the BJP had won or were leading in 24 seats each. The National People’s Party could end up with three seats, while others were frontrunners in six seats.
A big story of the election is the emergence of the BJP as a formidable contender for power. Having finished without any seat five years back, it has come up with its best-ever showing inin the northeastern state. While it is certain to finish as one of the two largest parties, its leaders were hoping to do one better with 22 results yet to come.
The Congress was putting up a good show, with the BJP giving them a close run for money, in the six districts of the Imphal Valley comprising 40 constituencies.
In the ten hill districts, where the Congress is comparatively weak, the BJP and the NPF were battling it out for the 20 seats. The NPF was leading in all three seats in Senapati district.
Ibobi, who spearheaded the Congress campaign in the run up to the elections, also led its winners’ list by retaining the prestigious Thoubal seat defeating rights activist and People’s Resurgence and Justice Alliance party nominee Irom Sharmila, who got fewer than 100 votes.
The three-time Chief Minister won comfortably with over 15,000 votes over Leitanthem Basanta Singh of the BJP.
With two other PRJA nominees suffering humiliating defeats, it was a stunning blow for Sharmila, who had aimed to become the Chief Minister to repeal the stringent Armed Forces Special Power Aact, against which she had continued her fast-unto-death for 16 years.
Another prominent Congress winner was state minister Akoijam Mirabai from Patsoi.
Two heavyweight BJP winners were T. Radheshyam, who had resigned from the Indian Police Service ahead of the elections, and party spokesperson N. Biren.
Nothwithstanding its impressive showing, the BJP suffered a big setback, with the defeat of former Union Minister and ex-state party chief Thounaojam Chaoba Singh – regarded as its Chief Ministerial candidate – from Nambol.
Another prominent BJP loser was former director of Regional Institute of Medical Sciences L. Fimate in border constituency, Tipaimukh.
So far Nemcha Kipgen of the BJP and Mirabai of the Congress are the only two women to have won of the 11 in the fray.
The assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab were the largest democratic exercise since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls — and the BJP was determined to prove a point.
