Gandhinagar, Dec 8 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power in Gujarat with a landslide, winning 156 seats with 52.5 per cent votes and breaking Congress leader Madhavsinh Solanki's 1985 record of 149 seats with 55.55 per cent vote share.

In 12 districts, it has totally washed out the Congress.

The AAP proved to damage the Congress on a large scale, and also the BJP on few seats. However, the AIMIM was rejected by Muslim voters. Three BJP rebels were elected, but 16 others were shown the door by the voters.

Samajwadi Party's Kandhal Jadeja got elected to the assembly from Kutiyana. BTP founder Chhotu Vasava faced defeat after representing the Jhagadia seat for seven terms. He had to contest as an independent candidate, because son Mahesh Vasava did not issue a BTP ticket to him.

In 12 districts including Kutch, Amreli, Junagadh, Surendranagar, Surat, Tapi, and Valsad, the BJP made a clean sweep while 44 Congress candidates and 128 AAP candidates forfeited their deposits.

The BJP won 46 out of 54 seats in Saurashtra and Kutch, 33 out of 35 in south Gujarat, 22 out of 32 in north Gujarat and 55 out of 61 in central Gujarat. Against that, the Congress won 4 in Saurashtra and Kutch, only 1 in south Gujarat, 8 in north Gujarat, and 5 in central Gujarat.

Out of its 48 sitting MLAs, 40 lost the elections and only 8 have got elected. As Congress did not get 10 per cent seats in the Assembly, it might not get the Leader of Opposition's post.

Though the AAP has polled some 40 lakh votes, its main faces like Isudan Gadhvi, Gopal Italia, Alpesh Kathiria, Dharmesh Malaviya, and Sagar Rabari have lost miserably. The candidates who won are Chitar Vasava (Dadiapada), Bhupatbhai Bhayani (Visavadar), Sudhir Vaghani (Gariyadhar), Hemant Khava (Jamjodhpur) and Umesh Makwana (Botad).

The three BJP rebels who have won are Dhavalsinh Zala (Bayad), Dharmendrasinh Vaghela (Vaghodia) and Mavji Desai (Dhanera).