Close shave: BJP's Gujarat win doesn't eliminate troubles ahead of 2019
On December 12, two days before polling for the second phase of the Gujarat assembly election ended, BJP president Amit Shah was a picture of confidence. "It is impossible to defeat us in Gujarat," he said, perched on a sofa in the party's sprawling headquarters 'Kamalam' on the outskirts of Ahmedabad,"...that too with a leader like Modiji as our poll mascot." Shah spoke of the party's deep roots in the state and predicted a tally of over 130 seats. When the results rolled in on the morning of December 18, Shah's prediction of a BJP victory came true, but only partly so. The Modi Shah duo did blunt the opposition ranged against them to craft a sixth successive win, just one short of the CPI(M)'s record of seven successive wins in West Bengal, but the party just squeezed through. The party's 99 seat tally was just seven more than required for a simple majority, and only 19 seats more than the 80 seats won by the Congress and allies.
The BJP secured 49.1 per cent votes, one percentage point more than in 2012, but lost 16 seats. The Congress's 16 seat jump, its best performance in the state since 1985, came on the back of just a three percentage point rise in vote share. In most of the 16 seats the BJP lost, it was because of the None of the Above or NOTA option (introduced on EVMs in 2015) its apparently disenchanted supporters exercised. The NOTA votes, in fact, exceeded the margin of victory in some seats. For instance, in Modasa in north Gujarat, the BJP's margin
