After India gained independence in 1947, the Indian National Congress (INC) ruled Bombay State, which included present-day Gujarat and Maharashtra. When Gujarat became a separate state in 1960, the Congress continued its governance but lost in 1967 to Congress (O). The INC regained power in 1972 but faced protests during the Navnirman Andolan, leading to its dissolution in 1974 and a defeat in the 1975 state elections. The Congress returned to power in 1980 and 1985 with strong majorities but was decisively defeated by the BJP and Janata Dal in 1990. Janata Dal‘s Chimanbhai Patel formed a government with BJP support, but after BJP withdrew, Patel defected to the Congress, maintaining power until his death, after which Chhabildas Mehta took over.
The BJP gained a majority in 1995 but internal conflicts led to a coalition between the Rashtriya Janata Party and Congress, marking the last time Congress held power in Gujarat. The BJP consistently won subsequent elections, with Narendra Modi becoming Chief Minister in 2001. Congress struggled to make significant gains until 2017, when it and its allies won 80 seats, a significant increase. In the 2014 general election, BJP won a majority, and Modi became Prime Minister, with Anandiben Patel succeeding him as Gujarat’s first female Chief Minister, followed by Vijay Rupani in 2016.
Vijay Rupani resigned in September 2021, and Bhupendra Patel became the new Chief Minister. In the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections, the BJP won a historic 156 seats, while the Congress fell to its lowest count in three decades, and the Aam Aadmi Party gained five seats.