Modi’s party set for record-breaking landslide in India’s Gujarat state election

Reuters:

AHMEDABAD, India, Dec 8 – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was set to win the biggest majority by any party ever at elections in his home state of Gujarat on Thursday, a big boost to the Hindu nationalists ahead of general elections in 2024.

The western industrial state of Gujarat is a bastion of the BJP, which has not lost state assembly elections there since 1995. Modi was Gujarat’s chief minister for 13 years before becoming prime minister in 2014.

With final results likely to be announced in the next hours, the BJP was ahead in 156 seats out of a total 182 in Gujarat’s state assembly elections and was set to surpass its best results in Gujarat when it tallied 127 seats in 2002.

At the last state election in 2017, the party won 99 seats.

The final count was set to become the highest won by any party in Gujarat, bettering the 149 seats the Indian National Congress won in 1985.