Aam Aadmi Party’s massive rallies in the tribal areas and a strong perceived under-current in the villages failed to yield results as promised by the party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, who aimed at forming the next government in Gujarat.

The party, however, made strong inroads into the voter-base with a sizeable vote share of 13 per cent by winning five seats — four in Saurashtra’s rural-dominated constituencies and one in South Gujarat’s tribal area.

How it fared

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the tribal seat Dediyapada in Narmada district earlier held by Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) with a strong margin of over 40,000 votes. In Saurashtra’s four seats, however, AAP snatched away two seats each from the Congress and BJP.

In Bhavnagar district, it won Gariadhar seat with a margin of over 4,800 votes, earlier represented by the BJP, while it also replaced BJP at the Botad seat in the neighbouring Botad district with a margin of 2,779 votes.

In Jamnagar district’s Jamjodhpur seat, the AAP candidate won with a margin of over 10,000 votes. And in Junagadh district’s Visavadar constituency, AAP won with a margin of 7,000 votes.

However, the party’s prominent faces, the Chief Ministerial face Isudan Gadhvi lost to BJP’s Mulubhai Bera with a margin of over 18,000 votes. However, Gadhvi secured over 34 per cent vote share, the Election commission data showed.

In Surat, the party’s Gujarat unit chief Gopal Italia secured 27 per cent vote share in Katargam constituency, but lost to BJP’s Vinoo Moradiya. Also in Karanj constituency, AAP leader Manoj Sorathiya lost to BJP with 27 per cent vote share. Patidar reservation leader Alpesh Kathiriya lost to BJP’s Kishor Kanani, but secured over 41 per cent vote share.

Conquering the tribal regions

Notably, AAP’s vote share in the tribal belt was seen higher than North or Central Gujarat regions.

During his Gujarat campaigning, Arvind Kejriwal had promised free power, free education, government jobs and regularisation of contractual workers, among other promises. Also, Bhagwant Mann, Chief Minister of Punjab, also made strong pitch showcasing welfare measures that his AAP government took in a short span of taking charge.

Though this may have failed to fetch electoral gains for the party, it has attracted voters towards it. The Gujarat results for AAP, however, are in contrast to the recent civic body polls of Municipal Corporation of Delhi, where the party toppled the ruling BJP with a thumping majority.

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