The Bhartiya Janta Party on 23 February put up its best performance in the two decades by sweeping all six municipal corporations in the Gujarat Urban local body elections. The ruling party won comfortable majorities in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar corporations.

And the numbers speak for themselves. BJP improved on its 2015 tally of 389 seats out of total of 572 to as many as 483 out of 576 this time. However, on the other end, the Congress party took a nosedive in this election, from 174 seats in 2015 to just 55 in 2021. 

While the BJP did cement its domination in urban Gujarat, what gave a jolt to both the BJP and Congress was the performance by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who won 27 seats in Surat, a number so staggering for the debutant party that it even led to BJP Gujarat President CR Patil terming AAP’s victory as a “nail in the golden plate”. 

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal congratulated the people of Gujarat on Twitter for “the beginning of a new politics”, and is also expected to arrive in Surat to participate in a victory rally on 26 February.

In today’s episode, we will go through what was exactly at stake in this election, what led to AAP making in-roads in Gujarat and how important is their win? and does the Congress loss mean an end of a support in the state?

Host and Producer: Himmat Shaligram

Aditya Menon, Political Editor for The Quint

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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