The week in 5 charts | Gujarat Assembly elections, India’s GDP growth rate revised to 6.9%, and more

Here are five charts that will help you understand some of the key stories from this week

Results for the Gujarat Assembly elections came out on Thursday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stormed to power in Gujarat with a historic mandate, winning a record-breaking 156 out of 182 seats, a seventh consecutive victory for the party in the native state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP’s stupendous electoral performance stunned the opposition and even the party’s own members, sweeping cities and rural districts as triangular contests involving the BJP, the Congress, and new entrant, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), catapulted the ruling party to power with unprecedented numbers.

The victory comes when the incumbent government was facing issues like price rise, unemployment, and COVID-19 were on voters’ minds. The Morbi bridge collapse that killed at least 141 people was another blight. The BJP government also saw temporary and contract government staff protesting for revising pay grades. Then, there was the Maharashtra-Gujarat Par-Tapi-Narmada Riverlinking Project. The project did not sit well with the Adivasi community. However, the prime minister’s magic touch was at work again. Even in Morbi, the BJP won. Besides this, the BJP’s party restructuring helped 43% of sitting MLAs be removed from the candidate list, making way for new faces. Around 34 of the 37 turncoat MLAs who defected from the Congress to the BJP won. On the other hand, the Congress went from bagging 77 seats in 2017 to just 17 this year.

Also Read | How AAP helped BJP get its biggest landslide in Gujarat

The BJP, AAP, and Congress all gained from the Gujarat, Himachal, and Delhi MCD polls. However, the BJP remains the strongest. It has managed to retain its vote share in the places where it lost. Even the AAP’s strong entrance is only a cut into Congress votes for now. Congress’s Gujarat loss overshadows its Himachal victory.

Watch | Data Point | How BJP and AAP fared in Gujarat

The Congress on Thursday wrested Himachal Pradesh from the BJP winning 40 seats in the 68-member Assembly in the hill state which maintained its tradition of not voting any incumbent government to power since 1985. According to the results declared by the Election Commission, the BJP won 25 seats, while eight state ministers, including Suresh Bhardwaj, Ram Lal Markanda, and Surveen Chaudhary lost. While the independents won from three constituencies and the Aam Aadmi Party, which had contested from 67 seats, failed to open its account. The BJP and the Congress contested on all 68 constituencies.

Watch | Himachal Pradesh Assembly Election Results 2022 | Key winners and losers