Gujarat election results: AAP makes inroads into tribal belt, Congress down to three from 14
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched 23 out of 27 Scheduled Tribe (ST) seats in the Gujarat Assembly elections, as the new player Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), swept Congress aside to find a footing in the tribal belt.
Although the AAP could win only one seat, it emerged as a direct challenger to the BJP in nine of the 27 reserved seats. AAP candidate Chaitar Vasava, who got 1.02 lakh votes, the highest polled for an AAP candidate this election, defeated BJP’s Hitesh Vasava on Dediapada seat.
In one of its worst performances in the state, the Congress bagged only three seats, down from 14 seats in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), which won two seats in 2017 in alliance with the Congress, faced defeat in all 24 seats it contested. Both the Congress and BTP fought independently in the 2022 Gujarat elections.
STs constitute around 14 per cent of population in the state and are spread along its eastern belt across 27 seats in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly. The 27 seats are reserved for them.
This is only the third time since 1995 that the BJP’s tally in the Scheduled Tribe reserved constituencies has surpassed that of the Congress.
In the 2022 elections, Congress and the AAP promised to implement the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) (PESA) Act, if they were elected in the state. Meanwhile, the saffron party sought to highlight development work done by the BJP government through the allocation of a special budget for the tribal-inhabited areas, as well as having a woman tribal president, about which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken of in his election campaigns.
On Thursday, The BJP witnessed a historic win bagging 156 seats and getting over 50 per cent vote share, and formed the government in the state for the seventh consecutive term. The saffron party even beat its own record from the 2017 elections, when it had won 99 seats. The Congress, meanwhile, faced its worst defeat winning just 17 seats, and new player Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won five seats.
