The election results for Gujarat, the land of origin for over half of Britain’s Hindus, were announced on 23rd December 2007, with the outcome of a very one-sided victory for the Bhratiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Although it was expected for the Narendra Modi (who has been the Chief Minister for the last 7 years) to hang on to power for his third term, the extent of the victory was not predicted by both opinion surveys and exit polls.

The final count stood at:

Total seats - 182
BJP - 117
Congress - 59
NCP - 3
Janata Dal-United - 1
Independents- 2

Over the past decade, Gujarat has been the Indian state known for the achieving the fastest economic growth, with rapid improvement of infrastructure, attracting many new industries and a balanced social welfare program which has enabled some of the poorest people not to be left behind as the rest prosper. It is largely this factor which enabled Narendra Modi to achieve his thumping victory.

However, another less rosy aspect of life in Gujarat over the past decade, which has received far more international media attention, has been the hostility between the Hindu and Muslim populations, which culminated in the massive 2002 riots, which broke out when a train carrying Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya was set ablaze, allegedly by Muslim mobs, in the Gujarati town of Godhra. What followed were several days of rioting which resulted in at least 1000 deaths. The riots were followed by a terrorist attack on the Akshardham Temple complex, Gujarat’s largest Hindu temple, in which gunmen entered the temple premises and opened fire, killing 29 people and injuring dozens more.

Many blamed Chief Minister Narendra Modi for turning a blind eye to retaliatory attacks by Hindus upon Muslims, and for obstructing legal justice for Muslim riot victims. Thousands of articles in hundreds of international media outlets have projected him as a “Hindu-fascist”. As a result, he was even refused a visa to travel to the USA to give a speech to a Gujarati hoteliers association there.

However, the people of Gujarat clearly, by and large, are not affected or influenced by the negative publicity he has received.

The following are links to news pieces and columns on the Gujarat election results, covering a wide variety of opinions:

Reading Gujarat’s Message Right

"Allah is with Narendra Modi"

Economical aspect of Gujarat elections

Modi...according to women!

Modi: "I am CM today and CM forever"

Modi unstoppable

British Gujaratis on election results