Amit Shah Vows BJP's First Kerala CM by 2026, Sets 40% Vote Target

Addressing newly elected BJP and NDA representatives at a convention centre in Kowdiar, Shah sought to rally party cadres even as the results of the 2025 local body elections exposed the steep climb facing the party.

During his previous visit to Kerala on July 12, 2025, Shah had asserted that the road to the Secretariat in 2026 would pass through the local body polls, setting a target of securing at least 25 per cent of the vote share.

The BJP, however, ended the local elections with 14.80 per cent, far below the stated goal, with its most notable success being the mayoral post in Thiruvananthapuram.

Turning that solitary achievement into a symbolic moment, Shah referred to his visit earlier in the day to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.

He recalled having pledged to offer prayers there if the BJP won the mayor's post in the state capital.

"I am coming here straight after paying obeisance to the Lord," he said, drawing loud applause from party workers.

Insisting that the mayor's post was only a beginning, Shah reiterated the BJP's larger ambition.

"We have a long journey ahead, and it will reach its culmination only when Kerala has a BJP Chief Minister," he said, underlining that the party's sights were firmly set on 2026.

To sustain morale, Shah highlighted the BJP's rising vote share in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.

"In 2014, we had 11 per cent. In 2019, it rose to 16 per cent. In 2024, it touched 20 per cent," he said, attributing the trend to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the 2021 Assembly polls, the NDA's vote share dropped to 12.41 per cent, underscoring the challenge of translating parliamentary gains into Assembly success.

However, Amit Shah projected an ambitious trajectory. "Now we will go from 20 to 30 and then from 30 to 40 - all in 2026 itself," he said, brushing aside scepticism by citing the BJP's past expansions in states such as Assam and Uttar Pradesh, where the party rose from marginal strength to sustained power.

Shah's address was punctuated by the slogan "Ab baari Kerala ki hai" (Now it is Kerala's turn), which drew an enthusiastic response from party cadres.

He said the BJP's push for power in Kerala would rest on three pillars - development, security, and protection of faith. He argued that Kerala's dependence on remittances from non-resident Keralites reflected a lack of development, accused both the LDF and UDF of failing to act firmly against extremist organisations, and alleged that successive governments had failed to protect religious institutions and assets.

Launching a sharp attack on the ruling Left and the Congress, Shah said communism had disappeared from much of the world and that the Congress was steadily vanishing from India.

He also posed a pointed question to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, asking what steps the state government had taken to retrieve land allegedly belonging to Christian and Hindu families from the Wakf Board.

Referring to the abolition of triple talaq, Shah accused both major political fronts of opposing reforms that he said ensured justice for Muslim women.

"Appeasement of one is injustice to another. The BJP stands for justice to all and appeasement of none," he said.

While Shah's speech energised party workers and reinforced the BJP's ambition of securing the Chief Minister's post in Kerala, the numbers from the local body elections underline the scale of the task ahead as the state heads towards the 2026 Assembly polls.

- IANS