BJP hopes dented in 'Hindi heartland' too

New Delhi, NT Bureau: Saffron bastions in the Hindi heartland of the country are crumbling with the Samajwadi PartyCongress combine scoring huge gains in the biggest state of Uttar Pradesh winning more than 40 seats.

The BJP which had won 64 of the 80 seats in the 2019 polls, saw its tally reduced to a mere 30 plus seats dealing a body blow to its hopes of going past the 272 mark in parliament. Rajasthan and Haryana too dealt a big blow to BJP hopes.

The Congress won 11 seats in Rajasthan after drawing a blank in 2019 and shared the honours with the BJP in Haryana where it had drawn a blank in the earlier polls. The only consolation was Madhya Pradesh where the BJP managed to win all 29 seats.

Even Gujarat, the home state of PM Modi saw the Congress winning a seat this time. The four seats in Himachal Pradesh went the BJP way with Bollywood star Kangana Ranaut among the party's winners.