Gandhinagar/New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi following the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s victory in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) election, citing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s failure to retain its electoral deposits in any of the 32 seats it contested and challenging the Congress to introspect over its prolonged electoral defeats in Gujarat.
Amit Shah, who represents the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, said the BJP had won 38 of the corporation’s 44 seats, while the AAP had contested 32 seats but failed to secure enough votes to retain its deposits in any of them.
“The AAP contested 32 seats and lost its deposit in all 32,” Union Minister Shah said, describing the BJP’s victory in Gandhinagar as a reflection of the mood of Gujarat’s voters and their continued support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He also claimed that the BJP had increased its vote share in the corporation by 10 percentage points since the previous election.
According to the State Election Commission’s detailed results, the BJP polled 3,08,672 votes in 2026, accounting for 56.46 per cent of the vote, compared with 46.11 per cent in 2021.
Union Minister Shah used the result to question Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, asking whether the BJP’s poll performance could also be attributed to the electoral roll exercise.
“Is this the result of SIR?” he asked, adding that the BJP’s popularity and PM Modi’s appeal could not be dismissed by attributing electoral outcomes to the revision of electoral rolls.
He urged the Congress leadership to examine why the party had continued to lose elections in Gujarat, saying “it had not won an election in the state for 41 years”.
Amit Shah referred to 1985 as the last time the Congress won an election in Gujarat and said its repeated defeats should prompt introspection.
The BJP’s victory in Gandhinagar was decisive in terms of seats, although the Congress improved its performance compared with the previous election.
The BJP’s tally fell from 41 seats in 2021 to 38 this time, while the Congress increased its tally from two to five. An Independent candidate won one seat, and the AAP failed to win any.
The vote-share figures also showed a sharp reversal in the AAP’s fortunes. Its vote share fell from 22.22 per cent in 2021 to 4.38 per cent in 2026.
The Congress’ vote share rose from 27.79 per cent to 37.05 per cent, while the BJP’s increased from 46.11 per cent to 56.64 per cent in the comparison figures.
“The results demonstrated that voters continued to back the BJP despite the negative politics by the Opposition,” Union Minister Shah said.
The election covered 11 wards and 44 seats in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, with counting held on Tuesday.
The outcome leaves the BJP in control of the civic body while the Congress improves its representation and the AAP loses the seat it had won in 2021.
The BJP also retained control of the Thara and Okha municipalities. In Thara, it won 19 of the 24 seats, with the Congress taking the remaining five.
In Okha, the BJP secured 33 of the 36 seats, including four in which its candidates were elected unopposed; the Congress won the other three seats contested at the polls.
(IANS)
