Gujarat Results 2017: Rahul Gandhi was in poll arena without bothering about the result, Shiv Sena said.
The BJP victory in Gujarat has been dismissed entirely by its fractious ally, the Shiv Sena, which has issued fulsome praise for the performance of the Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi. The drop in the BJP figures, Sena said, was an indication of Gujarat's disappointment with the BJP and its development model. The nail-biting counting session yesterday eventually saw the BJP win 99 seats in the 182-member assembly -- 16 less than their figure in 2012. The Congress gained 19 seats to reach 80.
"Although you see the BJP coming to power, the real winner is the Congress party. They may have lost, but have defeated the BJP," senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said.
Sena has made its change of stance on Rahul Gandhi clear. It had said the Gujarat campaign saw him emerge as a leader in his own right and criticized the BJP for failing to acknowledge it. On the morning of counting, an editorial in Saamna, the Sena mouthpiece had heaped praise on the 47-year-old, who took charge of the Congress from his mother Sonia Gandhi two days ago.
"When the faces of bigwigs (in the BJP) were turning grey due to fear of defeat, Rahul Gandhi was in the poll arena without bothering about the result. It is this confidence that will take Rahul forward," the editorial read.
Mr Raut said the BJP victory was a "foregone conclusion" given its "22 years of rule in the state, the use of money power and deployment of 14 Chief Ministers for the campaign. But the BJP has not won the victory it expected".
The Gujarat results happened "none of the dreams you (BJP) showed the state and the country were realised," Mr Raut said. The BJP, he indicated, should take lessons from Gujarat and gauge the mood of the country. "If people in Gujarat are not happy (with the BJP) today, then understand their psyche, understand what people in the country feel," he said.
The Sena, which had been at odds with the BJP since forging afresh alliance after the Maharashtra assembly elections of 2014, has recently spoken of pulling out. Elections will have to be held within a year, Aaditya Thackeray, the son of party chief Uddhav Thackeray has said. The Sena boss's meetings with NCP chief Sharad Yadav and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee have already triggered speculations of a political realignment.
The Saamna editorial had also taken a dig at the BJP allegations about the Congress governance. "Are those who think that nothing happened in the previous 60 years and that India progressed only in the last three years, humans or epitome of foolishness?"