Leading national newspapers on Friday largely focused on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in the Gujarat Assembly election, with many highlighting the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the role he played in his party’s election campaign.
Reports of the Congress’ victory in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly election result, which were also announced on Thursday, were also carried on the front pages of major English and Hindi language newspapers. However, these were mostly relegated to the margins with the focus remaining on the Gujarat polls and the BJP’s win there.
The focus of English and Hindi language newspapers scanned on Friday remained on the BJP’s Gujarat win even as the party had marginally ceded some overall political power as compared to the beginning of the week. Until Tuesday, the BJP was in power in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
However, by Thursday it lost power in Himachal Pradesh as well as the civic body in the national capital’s biggest civic body – ceding overall power marginally to its political rivals. The Aam Aadmi Party had, on Wednesday, managed to end the BJP’s 15-year rule of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi – the biggest civic body in the national capital territory.
Further, the BJP lost five of the seven bye-elections, results of which were also announced on Thursday. Results of the bye-elections for Lok Sabha and Assembly seats across five states were, however, largely missing from the front pages of major national dailies barring a few exceptions and snippets.
The Indian Express said on its front page that it was a “sweep and a record” for the BJP in Gujarat, pointing towards the record number of seats it had clinched in the legislative Assembly polls. The saffron party won 156 seats in the 182-seat legislative Assembly – the most ever by a party.
It was able to register a historic win and stave off a challenge by its rival, the Congress, as well as new entrant the Aam Aadmi Party even after 27 years of being in the government.
The Times of India’s front page read “Modi’s GujRath Crushes Cong, AAP,” focussing on the election result in the prime minister’s home state. The newspaper said that the “Man of the Match was clearly [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi”.
It also said that the Congress was able to draw “consolation” from the “revolving door” for governments in Himachal Pradesh – its first Assembly election win since December 2018.
The BJP had been in power in Himachal Pradesh since 2017. In every Assembly election for more than three decades, voters in Himachal Pradesh have opted to change the government. The BJP failed to buck that trend.
The front page of The Hindu talked about both, the election results in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh. The Aam Aadmi Party’s entry into Gujarat’s electoral politics with an “impressive” vote share of about 13% had “ensured the decimation of the main Opposition party, the Congress,” which saw its vote share plummet to 27.3%, the newspaper wrote on its front page. Talking about Himachal Pradesh, it pointed towards the hill state’s trend of voting out the incumbent government every five years.
The Hindustan Times led its front page with the headline “Modi’s seventh wonder,” referring to the party’s unprecedented seventh Assembly polls win in Gujarat.
Hindi language daily, Amar Ujala, said that history had been created in Gujarat and the “tradition” had been maintained in Himachal Pradesh. The newspaper attributed BJP’s seventh consecutive win in Gujarat to the prime minister’s “karishma (personal charisma)”. The “tradition” referred to the pattern of the incumbent government losing the state polls every time for more than 30 years.
Hindustan newspaper led with the headline reading “Modi-Modi in Gujarat”. It also said on the front page: “Himachal mein phir se Congress ki hukuumat (Congress’ rule once again in Himachal)”.
Prabhat Khabar, another Hindi newspaper, described the BJP’s win in Gujarat as “historic and magical”.