Gujarat Assembly Election Results: The BJP is set to win close to 160 of Gujarat's 182 seats.
As the BJP headed to a massive victory in Gujarat, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said today that the state had rejected "those who promised freebies", in a swipe at Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that is set to win a fraction of the seats it had hoped for.
"Gujarat has given an unprecedented mandate to Narendra Modi-ji's BJP, which characterises development and public welfare by rejecting those who do politics of freebies and appeasement," Amit Shah said in a series of tweets.
Gujarat is the home state of both PM Modi and Amit Shah.
"This massive victory has shown that every section, be it women, youth or farmers, are wholeheartedly with the BJP. Gujarat has always created history. In the last two decades, under the leadership of Modi ji, the BJP broke all the records of development in Gujarat and today the people of Gujarat have blessed the BJP and broken all records of victory. This is a victory of the unwavering faith of the public in the development model of Narendra Modi," he added.
The BJP was set to win close to 160 of Gujarat's 182 seats, breaking the Congress's record of 149 in 1985. The Congress sank to an abysmal 16, an all-time low.
AAP, which mounted a strong challenge and pitched itself as the main rival of the BJP in Gujarat, led in five seats.
Arvind Kejriwal had, during his campaign, repeatedly put out handwritten notes declaring that his party would win in Gujarat and that AAP leaders Gopal Italia and Isudan Gadhvi would win. So far, none of that has proved true.
In his dig at AAP, Amit Shah used "revdi", the word used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for political parties handing out freebies to voters.
The "Revdi" back-and-forth started earlier this year when PM Modi had warned against what he called "very dangerous" freebies for votes.