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Ahmedabad/Shimla, Dec 20 (IANS) Chief Minister Narendra Modi returned to power with a sweeping and politically significant electoral win in Gujarat but the Congress easily ousted the BJP in Himachal Pradesh. As political pundits tried to decipher the meaning behind the election hat-trick, Modi used his victory speech to raise the national pitch saying the Gujarat verdict was a victory for "Mother India". Even as the results began pouring in, there was intense speculation on whether Modi would now take to national centrestage to pitch for the prime ministerial's post ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election. In Gujarat, which Modi has ruled since 2001, the BJP bagged 115 seats, two short of its 117 tally of 2007. A bruised Congress took 61 seats, two more than what it got five years ago. The Gujarat Parivartan Party of Modi baiter Keshubhai Patel was humbled -- it got just two seats including his own. The Congress win in Himachal was equally emphatic. In the hill state, the BJP's Prem Kumar Dhumal government conceded defeat to the Congress that won a comfortable 36 seats in the 68-member assembly. The BJP, which had got 41 seats in 2007, plunged to 26. One all perhaps, but not really even stevens. The win in Gujarat, which sends 26 MPs to the Lok Sabha against Himachal's four, dominated the political space, with the BJP exulting and the Congress looking for ways to explain its loss. BJP veteran Arun Jaitley termed the Gujarat win as "emphatic" and its loss in Himachal "disappointing". "Our victory in Gujarat is the fifth in a row (since 1995) and the third in a row with Narendra Modi at the helm," he said. Like most of his party colleagues, Jaitley was evasive when asked about a bigger role for Modi. His Rajya Sabha colleague Smriti Irani was amongst the few to say Modi would be her pick for the country's top post. Modi, who used innovations like 3-D technology to reach out in this election, visited his mother to get her blessings and even rival Keshubhai Patel after the results were out. As he spoke at his victory rally in Maninagar, Ahmedabad, thousands of supporters began to chorus "PM, PM, PM, PM... Modi pointedly ignored the cries. "I seek your forgiveness if there has been drawbacks, mistakes (in my administration)," said Modi, who came to power in Gujarat in late 2001 and whose early reign was marked by the 2002 communal carnage. "Give me your blessings so that we don't make any mistake (again)," he said in speech delivered in Hindi. And he added: "Even by mistake, we should not do any wrong to anyone." For Ahmedabad-based activist Shabnam Hashmi, the "victory was frankly very surprising". "Social activists who stand by principles of democracies, who believe that Modi has finished all democracies, will continue to fight," Hashmi said. The Congress, which leaned on party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi to inject life into its campaign in Gujarat, failed to derail Modi but had the satisfaction of winning two seats more than in 2007. The Congress, however, welcomed the "thumping victory" in Himachal, where its veteran leader Virbhadra Singh steered it to power. "I have left it on Soniaji (Congress president) to decide who will be the next chief minister," the 78-year-old told IANS in Shimla, adding that "he has full faith in the high command". The party will decide on its leader when the Congress Legislative Party meets in two to three days -- 28 of 36 elected legislators owe alliance to Virbhadra Singh.
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