Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday asserted at a BJP rally in Madurai that the party was set to come to power in Tamil Nadu and Bengal next year, just like it did in Delhi.

“In 2025, we successfully formed the government in Delhi, and in 2026, it will be Tamil Nadu’s turn to witness a new government under our leadership. In the same year, the BJP and the NDA are set to establish governments in both Bengal and Tamil Nadu,” Shah told party workers in Madurai.

Shah, the chief election strategist of the BJP, arrived in Madurai on Saturday night, his second crucial visit to Tamil Nadu in two months, to rev up the party machinery ahead of the Assembly elections in the state next year.

Before addressing the state-, district- and mandal-level office-bearers, Shah chaired a meeting of the state core committee of the Tamil Nadu BJP.

Ahead of leading the core panel parleys, he worshipped at the Madurai Meenakshi temple.

The BJP is a marginal player in the southern state, but led by Shah, the party has been striving hard to expand its footprint by aligning with regional parties such as the AIADMK.

“This party workers’ convention will mark the beginning of the DMK government’s decline. In 2026, the BJP-AIADMK alliance is going to form the NDA government in Tamil Nadu,” Shah announced.

Shah said that he lives in Delhi, but his “eyes and ears are focused on Tamil Nadu”. He said the M.K. Stalin-led DMK government had proven to be ineffective, failing to deliver on even 60 per cent of the promises outlined in their manifesto.

Referring to Operation Sindoor, the home minister said the military offensive against Pakistan had generated a “groundswell of support in Tamil Nadu”.

Shah said Tamil Nadu would be the key battleground for the BJP in 2026 and exhorted party workers to pledge victory in the polls. “Raise your hands and pledge victory,” he told the workers.

He said the party had gained a new momentum after emerging victorious in Odisha, retaining power in Haryana for a record third term and returning to power in Delhi after 26 years.

Shah, however, skipped the mention of the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats based on the 2027 census.

Led by the DMK in Tamil Nadu, many southern parties have claimed that the population-based delimitation would reduce the representation of the southern states in Parliament.

In Bengal, Trinamool said Shah was in the “habit of daydreaming”.