Scenes From Rajkot, Gujarat on Election Day

It seemed as if the people of Rajkot, a large and politically charged city in western Gujarat, were all talking about the same thing on Thursday morning: the Bharatiya Janata Party's near-certain victory in the state elections.

News of the initial results spread quickly, showing the B.J.P., led by Narendra Modi, leading in 116 of 182 constituencies, crushing the Congress Party. Supporters began thronging the B.J.P. office and took to the streets, dancing and lighting firecrackers. Elsewhere in the state, hundreds of party workers carried out victory processions, where women were seen dancing the traditional “garba raas.”

As news channels ran extensive coverage of the results in each race, the consensus from Rajkot's bustling markets and many temples, bus stops and college campuses was that the B.J.P.'s victory was inevitable, and that indeed Mr. Modi, who is set to become chief minister for a fourth term, is invincible.

†œYou can't have a better leader than Narendra Modi, who is intelligent, imaginative, a visionary and above all noncorrupt,” said Kalpa Ganatra, 42, a homemaker from Rajkot. “The Congress Party doesn't have any issue to talk about, nor does it have a strong leader who can do something for the people of Gujarat.

Rajkot, a major city in the vast Saurashtra region where the powerful Patel community dominates, has long been an important theater of Gujarat's politics. A B.J.P. stronghold and a bastion of Hindutva politics, many leading state politicians like former chief minister Keshubhai Patel and the state's finance minister Vajubhai Vala come from here.

In October, the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi started her party's election campaign by addressing a rally here that was attended by thousands.

On Thursday, even as senior Congress leaders in Delhi called their party “a winner” in Gujarat, the Congress' leaders in Gujarat appeared dejected, leaving counti ng centers and avoiding phone calls from reporters.

B.J.P. leaders, by contrast, were in a celebratory mood, congratulating Mr. Modi for bringing economic prosperity and investment to Gujarat. The results, said Dhansukh Bhanderi, B.J.P.'s president in Rajkot, “show people's confidence and trust in the B.J.P. and Narendra Modi's leadership.”

“It shows that people of Gujarat want development, which has been all over the state during the B.J.P. rule,” Mr. Bhanderi said.

He also slammed the Congress Party, saying that the people of Gujarat had responded to Congress leaders who “were trying to show them the moon by giving false promises.”

Very few are surprised by the B.J.P.'s apparent victory, but many critics in the state say the results are tough to explain.

“I don't know why the Gujarat people have voted for Modi,” said Ratilal Dobariya, 50, a professor of commerce from Rajkot, who does not think Modi “deserved to be re-elected. ” “Modi and his party have done nothing extraordinary in the last 10 years,” he said.

The B.J.P., Mr. Dobariya said, “have been misleading the people on the much-hyped development plank.”

He also attributed the party's victory to Congress's failure to offer up a strong chief ministerial candidate. The recent spate of corruption scandals also hurt the party's prospects, he said, as Mr. Modi has built an image as a clean leader.