If the world is going to end on December 21, at least Gujaratis are not concerned. The only thing on top of their mind – of course, apart from their quotidian matters of job, business and family – is the Gujarat assembly election outcome. Chief minister Narendra Modi has won third consecutive election and people, who voted for him, are celebrating as if it’s news to them. This level of enthusiasm for Modi and BJP was not so obvious during the campaign.

This morning, people sitting in verandahs were chatting with their neighbours across the small street in their poles and housing societies or were reading newspapers. Newspapers have little space for anything else. Gujarat Samachar, the highest selling newspaper in Gujarat and a staunch critic of the CM, is celebrating too. The headline, on top of the masthead, is Modi’s Magic Hat-trick: Delhi is Not Far Now. A photo of Modi runs from the top of the page to the bottom. Divya Bhaskar, which claims to be number two paper, has gone further, giving the whole front page to a photo of Modi flashing V sign, with the headline Jeet-no Jadugar (Magician of Victory). The Ahmedabad edition of the Times of India has gone to town with the headline: Mandrake Modi (the day before, Modi’s image was morphed to present him in the Salman style, with caption saying Dabangg 3 and the headline saying Swagat Nahi Karoge Aap Hamara?) The strapline today calls Modi a magician. Elsewhere, there’s play on word like ‘Om Namo (Narendra Modi’s initials in Gujarati) Sweepay’ and the Congress getting hit by ‘Namo-nia’. Not to mention ‘Rajnikant of Politics’.

Two photographs in particular, apart from the usual celebration snaps, have been highlighted by all: Modi touching the feet of his mother Hiraba and Modi offering sweets to his predecessor and rival Keshubhai Patel.

“Modi is a real dramatist. Remember how he cried in the assembly last time,” says one customer at a barber shop in Ghatlodia, the middle-class constituency in Ahmedabad from where revenue minister Anandiben Patel won by more than 1,00,000 votes (surpassing Modi’s margin).

Another customer reads out a news item, about an SMS doing rounds that Keshubhai got Sachin’s bat (bat was his Gujarat Parivartan Party’s symbol, and Sachin Tendulkar is apparently not in form). “Bapa, now return that bat to Sachin,” was what this fellow shouted out, much to the amusement of the rest.

“Look, all Congress leaders were trounced. They had it coming,” somebody says, referring to the defeat of Arjun Modhvadia and Shaktisinh Gohil, though Shankarsinh Vaghela has managed to win from his favourite Kapadvanj. “They were promising Ghar-nu Ghar (one’s own house), now they are themselves homeless.”

But then the list of losers also feature some Modi cabinet members too including Dilip Sanghani, who faced a series of serious corruption allegations, and Jay Narayan Vyas, who was the government spokesman as the only person in the cabinet to be able to communicate in English. Vyas had lost from Siddhpur even in the 2002 wave, but his career was resurrected in 2007.

Whether Delhi is closer or not for Modi was not a question the three customers and the barber were interested in. Once prodded, one of them said it was up to Modi to take the call, another said it would be OK if he moved to the national capital, “will do good for the country”, and it would be equally OK if he stays in Gandhinagar. “If he is not here, who can run Gujarat?”, meaning nobody else can.