The BJP won the Gujarat assembly polls for a record sixth straight victory today, and  evicted the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, tightening the party’s grip over the country’s politics with general elections only 18 months away.

The Gujarat results which turned out to be a seesaw, with BJP and Congress running neck and neck in the morning. At midday, BJP pulled ahead, and by 6.30 p.M., it had won 99 seats in the 182-member assembly.

The result with a final tally of 99 seats for BJP was not as not as grand as the saffron party had expected , given that both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party President Amit Shah hail from the state. Party leaders had aimed for 150-plus seats, but faced a tough challenge from a resurgent Congress led by Rahul Gandhi, as well as young Patidar and Dalit leaders Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mewani.

The Congress won 77 seats  compared to 61 in the 2012 elections.

“This is double joy for me,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a former Gujarat chief minister, in a victory speech at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi. A speech which seemed more of a sigh of relief  given that the Prime Minister had single handedly swung the fortunes for the party in what looked like a defeat in Gujarat.