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Union Home Minister Amit Shah speaks to the media about the results of local body elections and by-elections, as well as the ongoing protests demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of the SIR, in New Delhi on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday cited the BJP’s sweeping victory in local body and rural elections across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tripura to blockert that voters continued to back Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while attacking Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi over protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and predicting another defeat for the Congress in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
BJP cites wins in Gujarat and Rajasthan
The BJP won 90 of the 104 seats across three urban local bodies in Gujarat, including 38 of the 44 seats in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, Shah said. The Congress won five seats in Gandhinagar, while an Independent candidate won one. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which contested all 32 seats in Gandhinagar, failed to win any and lost its security deposits, he added.
Shah also cited local body elections in Rajasthan where the BJP captured 90 per cent of the municipal corporations, 66 per cent of the municipal councils and 65 per cent of the municipalities.
Shah said the results reflected the electorate’s continued support for Modi and pointed to a 10 per cent increase in the BJP’s vote share in Gandhinagar compared with the previous election.
“I want to tell Shri Rahul ji and his blockociates to prepare themselves once again for a crushing defeat in 2029. In the 2029 general elections, the NDA is going to win with a resounding majority, and the Congress is going to face defeat for the fourth consecutive time,” Shah told reporters.
“The people of this country are with Narendra Modi ji, with the BJP, with the NDA. You cannot deny this truth,” he said.
Shah questions Rahul Gandhi’s leadership
Shah also pointed to the Congress’s prolonged absence from power in Gujarat, saying it had not won an election in the State since 1985 and had suffered defeats over the past 41 years. He used the results to question Gandhi’s leadership and urge the Congress to reblockess its political strategy.
Referring to recent bypolls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, Shah said the Congress had failed to win a single seat across the three regions. He cited BJP victories in West Bengal’s Naogaon and Nandigram constituencies, as well as its win in Rejinagar, where the party defeated the Trinamool Congress by more than 75,000 votes. In Puducherry, he highlighted the victory of the NDA ally All India NR Congress, which won by 8,482 votes, while the Congress secured 22 per cent of the vote, according to Shah.
Shah attacks Opposition protests against Election Commission
Turning to the Opposition’s protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Shah accused Gandhi of pursuing “negative politics” and said the Congress could not regain public confidence through what he described as fabricated media events and falsehoods.
Shah also alleged that Gandhi wanted infiltrators to be registered as voters and questioned the Congress’s criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
“I want to ask Shri Rahul Gandhi ji directly: Is this the result of the SIR? The SIR started only after 2024,” he said, arguing that the Congress’s electoral setbacks had begun well before the exercise.
“You need to engage in introspection. You cannot win the trust of the country’s people through fabricated media events and echoes of lies,” Shah said.
The remarks came as the BJP sought to project its electoral victories as evidence of continued support for Modi, while the Congress and other Opposition parties stepped up their campaign against the Election Commission, alleging irregularities in electoral rolls and demanding Kumar’s resignation.
Published on October 13, 2026
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