Amit Shah calls Rajasthan Assembly polls a ‘trailer’ for 2019 election

BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday told party workers in Jaipur that the coming Rajasthan Assembly election would be a “trailer” for the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, and urged them to work hard for victory. He was speaking at a Shakti Kendra Sammelan at the Birla auditorium during a one-day visit to the state.

Shah’s message to workers

Shah said workers should not worry about which posts, including chief minister, anyone would get after the election. The BJP has already named Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje as its chief ministerial candidate again. According to Shah, results in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh would set the direction for 2019, and a BJP win in the Lok Sabha election would open the way for the party to rule for the next 50 years.

He asked workers to think only of the party’s lotus symbol and Bharat Mata while campaigning, and said every worker should cover at least five villages before the polls to talk about the government’s work, including the surgical strike against Pakistan and the higher minimum support price for crops.

Attack on the opposition

Shah said the opposition’s proposed grand alliance would have little effect beyond some influence in Uttar Pradesh. He asked workers to put a question to voters: how they felt about Rahul Gandhi as prime minister, Mamata Banerjee in charge of external affairs and Mulayam Singh Yadav as defence minister. He said the Congress should first make its leader and policies clear. “Rahul Baba has the right to dream but he will wake up on the day of counting,” he said.

Shah claimed the Congress was trying to spread confusion, citing the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri and the 2015 return of awards by writers. He said the BJP had won elections despite those issues and would win again, adding that neither the Modi nor the Raje government had done anything to be ashamed of.

What happened next

In the Rajasthan Assembly election the Congress became the largest party with 99 of the 199 seats that voted on 7 December 2018, against 73 for the BJP, and Ashok Gehlot became Chief Minister. The Congress also won in Madhya Pradesh, where Kamal Nath became Chief Minister, and in Chhattisgarh, where Bhupesh Baghel took office.

See also: Bharatiya Janata Party and Elections.

Originally published on 13 September 2018. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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