BJP will come to power in Kerala in 2026: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that various factors like Kerala's electoral arithmetic that is turning favourable to the BJP and the growing perception of the ineffectiveness and corruption of the two opposing fronts - the LDF and the UDF - have come together in such an auspicious manner that there was no way but for a BJP government to power in Kerala in 2026. 

"In 2014, we secured 11 per cent of the vote. In 2019, it was 16 per cent. And in 2024, it was 20 per cent. Everything is falling in place for the BJP to assume power in Kerala. We will form the government in Kerala in 2026," Amit Shah said during his inaugural speech at the Ward-Level Leadership Convention at Putharikkandam Maidanam in Thiruvananthapuram. He arrived at the venue after inaugurating the new party headquarters, Mararji Bhavan, at Thampanoor.

The figures Amit Shah reeled out demonstrate the expanding clout of the BJP in relation to the Lok Sabha polls. However, such a strong showing is not seen during the Assembly elections. Although in the 2019 Parliament elections, the BJP got 20 per cent of the votes, in the Assembly elections held in 2021, its vote share dwindled to 11.30 per cent.

The use of the Lok Sabha percentage was clearly meant as a confidence booster for the thousands who had gathered to hear him speak on Saturday. And the slogan around which the BJP workers in Kerala will mobilise in their aggressive push to form the government in 2026 is 'Viksit Keralam', the Kerala version of Modi's Viksit Bharat' catchphrase. "Viksit Kerala is possible only if the BJP comes to power," Shah said. 

The road to Secretariat, however, will be to pass through the 2025 local body polls. The Union Home Minister repeated what the BJP state president Rajeev Chandrashekhar had already declared to the BJP workers in his speech. "The NDA will contest in 21,000 local body wards in the coming local body polls and we will garner 25 per cent votes," Amit Shah said.

In 2020, 21,865 wards in Kerala had gone to the polls, and the BJP had contested in less than 14,000 wards. The party had won 1,600 wards, winning two municipalities (Palakkad and Pandalam) and 19 panchayats. Then, the party had cornered 14.80 per cent of the total polled votes. It is a 10 percentage point increase in votes that the BJP is aiming for in 2025.

If at all anyone sees the BJP's 2026 claim as far-fetched, Amit Shah issues a warning. "There was a time when the BJP was seen as a North Indian party. We were made fun of when we fought in Assam, but we came to power there twice. We have formed governments in Tripura and now in Odisha. In Telangana, we are one of the biggest parties (this was a pompous claim as the BJP's vote share is only 14 per cent as against the 39.40 per cent of the Congress and the 37.35 per cent of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi). And we will soon form a government in Tamil Nadu," Amit Shah said.

He said the BJP was Kerala's only option as it was the only party that did not practise appeasement politics. "Only Modi could ban extremist elements like the PFI (Popular Front of India). Still, they are active in Kerala, thanks to the appeasement politics of the CPM," he said. Shah said both the CPM and the Congress were incapable of ushering in changes.

"If Kerala wants absolute transformation, it has to shed its habit of alternately choosing between the LDF and the UDF and directly choose the BJP," the Union Home Minister said.

Further, he said the LDF government was neck-deep in corruption. He reeled out nouns associated with CPM corruption scandals: "Exalogic, Cooperation (a reference to Karuvannur bank scam, perhaps), AI cameras, Life Mission, PPE kits." "The gold smuggling scandal is the biggest government-sponsored corruption activity," Shah said.

He said the Congress was no better. "Bar bribery, solar scandal, the Palarivattom flyover scandal," Shah said, and claimed: "In the last 11 years, there has not been a single charge against the BJP government."