Union Home Minister Amit Shah, speaking at a Tuesday event focused on the Bharatiya Janata Party's performance in Gujarat's 2026 local body elections, pointed to the Congress party's absence from a statewide electoral victory in Gujarat since 1985. Shah directed remarks at Congress regarding its objections to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, citing BJP wins in Rajasthan and Tripura as part of a broader argument against the opposition. He also addressed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi directly, stating that the party had not secured a single election victory in 41 years.

Shah noted that the party's most recent Gujarat victory dated to 1985, with every subsequent election in the state resulting in a loss for Congress. According to Shah, the BJP secured 90 out of 104 contested seats spread across three municipalities and municipal corporations in Gujarat. Of the 44 seats up for contest in Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation — the local body covering his constituency — the BJP took 38.

Shah also drew attention to the Aam Aadmi Party's performance in the Gandhinagar civic polls, stating that the party lost its security deposit across all 32 constituencies where it fielded candidates. He noted that the BJP's vote share within the corporation had grown by ten percentage points relative to its standing in the prior contest, and attributed the outcome to support that Gujarat's electorate had extended toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Opposition figures raised objections to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, and those disputes formed the context within which Shah's remarks took shape. Shah put a question to Rahul Gandhi, asking whether the BJP's vote share in recent elections could be attributed to the Special Intensive Revision exercise or whether the party's own standing among voters deserved consideration. One perspective, which Shah appeared to challenge, holds that the BJP's performance at the polls and the personal draw Modi carries owe more to what analysts have termed the 'SIR' effect than to any broad, spontaneous mobilisation of voters.

Shah called for a period of self-reflection and pointed to by-election contests held across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry, arguing that Congress had not secured a single seat across any of those races. He also forecast that Rahul Gandhi would encounter an electoral defeat when voters go to the polls in 2029.

Addressing a gathering in West Bengal, Shah put forward figures showing the BJP had taken the Naogaon constituency from Congress by a margin of 1.42 lakh votes. Pointing to Nandigram as further evidence, he noted that the party's candidate there had taken roughly 76 per cent of the ballots cast, building a winning margin of 1.22 lakh votes over the nearest rival. Speaking at a campaign event in Rejinagar, Shah forecast that the BJP would outpace Trinamool Congress by more than 75,000 votes when results are tallied.

In Puducherry, the National Democratic Alliance's nominee — fielded by coalition partner All India NR Congress — finished ahead by a margin of 8,482 votes, with Congress drawing roughly 22 per cent of ballots cast. In Rajasthan's local body elections, Shah noted the BJP took control of nine in ten municipal corporations, along with roughly two-thirds of both municipal councils and municipalities. Election data also showed that AAP lost its deposit in over 85 per cent of the seats where it fielded candidates in Rajasthan.

Pointing to village committee elections held in Tripura, Shah noted that the NDA's combined tally reached approximately 4,000 seats — broken down as 3,248 in one category and roughly 900 in another — alongside a collective vote share of 77.5 per cent. According to Shah, Congress secured just 14 of the 4,600 available seats in those contests.