Morning Pulse: Shah turns Gandhinagar into a jab at Rahul, while the vote shares tell a fuller story

Overnight, Gujarat's civic results stopped being a Gandhinagar story and became a national argument. Union Home Minister Amit Shah used the BJP's sweep to take aim at Rahul Gandhi. The vote-share figures released with the results, though, show something his framing leaves out: the BJP and the Congress both grew, and the Aam Aadmi Party all but disappeared. In Ahmedabad, meanwhile, the search for a child in a city drain has entered its fifth day.

Shah spoke to reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday evening, after our Evening Pulse had gone out. ANI and the Free Press Journal reported that he said the Congress had not won an election in Gujarat in 41 years, and that it last won in 1985. He said the BJP had won 90 of the 104 seats counted across the three local bodies, and he described Gandhinagar as part of his own Lok Sabha constituency. According to both outlets, he linked the result to the opposition's campaign against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and asked whether Gandhi would blame the SIR for this result too. Neither report carried a reply from the Congress, and by publication we had not seen one.

The numbers behind the sweep are more mixed than the speech. IANS, carried by Bhaskar Live, and India TV both put the BJP's Gandhinagar vote share at 56.64 percent, the Congress at 37.05 percent and AAP at 4.38 percent. The BJP and the Congress each gained roughly nine to ten points on 2021, while AAP fell from about 22 percent. The two outlets give slightly different 2021 baselines, so we have rounded those figures. Shah's claim of a 10-point rise for the BJP fits the BJP numbers. The Congress's gain is the part of the story he did not mention.

So the anti-BJP vote in the capital did not vanish. It moved from AAP to the Congress. That helps explain how the Congress went from two seats to five while the BJP slipped from 41 to 38, despite polling more votes. Shah also said AAP lost its deposit in all 32 seats it contested. AAP had fielded candidates in only 32 of the 44 seats, as we reported last night.

Several loops from last night are still open. We found no report this morning naming Gandhinagar's mayor, giving a date for the new board's first meeting or saying who will lead the Congress's five-member group. We also found no formal statement on the results from the Congress or AAP state leadership. As of publication, we had seen no new report of police action on the two FIRs against Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani.

The tone of politics outside the capital hardened too. Gujarat Samachar and TV9 Gujarati reported remarks by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Mukesh Rathwa at a public event in Chhota Udepur district. A video of the speech has been widely shared. Both outlets reported that he said those who talk of sending the BJP home would not be allowed to step out of their own houses in 2027. Both also reported that he compared his opponents to cockroaches. Gujarat Samachar said his target was AAP leaders who post social media videos about local problems. Neither outlet carried a response from AAP or the BJP.

In Ahmedabad, the visually impaired ten-year-old who fell into an open drain near Pirana on Saturday had still not been found when Gujarat Samachar and Vibes of India reported on Wednesday morning, more than 80 hours into the search. Both reported that methane gas, thick sludge and industrial effluent in the line are slowing rescuers. Cameras lowered into manholes showed nothing through the mud. Teams have moved downstream to the sewage treatment plant's inlet screens and the banks of the Sabarmati. Both reports said municipal engineers suspect chemicals are reaching the sewer through unauthorised industrial connections or illegal night dumping by tankers. That suspicion is unconfirmed. Neither report mentioned an inquiry or a public statement from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

In Surat, police and health officials raided clinics in Pandesara and booked 16 people accused of practising medicine without qualifications, IANS and Gujarat First reported late on Tuesday. Police said some had studied only up to Class 10 or 12 and had earlier worked as compounders. One allegedly ran a clinic for 33 years. Medicines and equipment worth more than Rs 1.8 lakh were seized, and cases were registered at Pandesara police station.