Shah cited the BJP’s performance in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tripura to challenge Congress’s criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He also questioned whether the election results could be attributed to SIR, arguing that the BJP’s victories reflected public support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Today, elections were held in three municipalities and municipal corporations in Gujarat. The BJP secured a massive victory in 90 out of 104 seats across two municipal bodies and one municipal corporation,” Shah said. He added that the BJP won 38 of the 44 seats in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation.
Targeting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shah said it contested 32 seats and lost its security deposit in all 32. He asserted that Gujarat’s voters stood firmly behind Prime Minister Modi and claimed that Congress had not won a single election in the state in 41 years.
Shah then directly challenged Rahul Gandhi over the opposition’s criticism of SIR. “I want to ask Rahul Gandhi: Is this the result of SIR? You dismiss Prime Minister Modi’s popularity by attributing it to SIR. This is a time for introspection for them,” he said.
Referring to electoral outcomes in other states, Shah said Congress had failed to win a single seat in by-elections held in three states—West Bengal, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. He also cited the BJP’s strong performance in Rajasthan’s local body elections, describing the results as a lesson for Rahul Gandhi.
Shah further referred to Gram Samiti elections in Tripura, claiming that the NDA had secured more than 4,000 seats out of 4,600 and 900 seats, respectively, with a combined vote share of 77.5%. He said the elections had been conducted using ballot papers and used this to counter those who questioned electoral processes.
Shah Predicts Congress Defeat in 2029
Shah said several states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, had rejected and defeated Congress for decades. He argued that the party’s current approach to negative politics would not benefit it and said its leadership needed to understand voters and reconnect with the public.
“Rahul Gandhi, the people of India are no longer going to fall for your deception,” Shah said, predicting that the NDA would return to power with a massive majority in the 2029 general elections and that Congress would suffer defeat.
He reiterated his prediction while attacking Congress and its allies over their opposition to SIR, alleging that they were attempting to protect infiltrators under the cover of the electoral roll revision.
“I want to tell Rahul Gandhi that the people of the country have understood your strategy of protecting infiltrators under the pretext of SIR, and they will no longer fall for your tactics,” Shah said.
He urged Rahul Gandhi and his allies to prepare for a crushing defeat in 2029, asserting that the NDA was heading towards a massive majority while Congress was moving towards another electoral loss. Shah described it as the party’s fourth consecutive defeat.
Claiming that the public stood with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the NDA, Shah said their support could not be denied. He also thanked voters in Tripura, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bengal and Assam on behalf of the BJP, saying they had backed Modi, the BJP’s lotus symbol and the NDA despite what he described as a wave of malicious propaganda. He added that the results had strengthened all nationalist forces.
Shah Questions Congress’s Electoral Record
Shah also questioned Congress’s long-standing electoral performance in several states, pointing to the party’s repeated defeats over the past decades.
“Congress has not had a Chief Minister in Tripura for 33 years. In Bengal, Congress has not won for 54 years,” he said, referring to the party’s electoral record in West Bengal, Tripura and Gujarat. He added that Congress had faced defeats in these states for three, four or five decades.
Directly addressing Rahul Gandhi, Shah again asked whether these setbacks were the result of SIR, arguing that the revision process had been implemented only after 2024.
Shah also linked Congress’s electoral setbacks to Rahul Gandhi’s political leadership, stating that the party had continued to lose elections since he became its principal leader, later served as party president and subsequently became the Leader of the Opposition.
His remarks placed the BJP’s recent electoral performances at the centre of a broader political confrontation over voter list revisions, Congress’s electoral strategy and the contest for public support ahead of the 2029 general elections.
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