On Saturday, Gandhi visited Gujarat and met families and relatives of the victims of the Rajkot gaming zone fire tragedy and Congress workers in Ahmedabad and said that his party would defeat the BJP in the 2027 assembly election.

Addressing a convention of party workers in Ahmedabad, Gandhi said, “They (BJP) have challenged us by threatening us and damaging our office. Let me tell you that we are together going to break their government like they damaged our office.”

Gandhi was referring to a clash that broke out between members of the Congress and the BJP outside the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, Congress’s state headquarters in the Paldi area of Ahmedabad, on July 2, during a protest by BJP’s youth wing members against Gandhi’s remarks in Parliament.

“Take it in writing that Congress will contest in Gujarat and defeat Narendra Modi and BJP in Gujarat as we did in Ayodhya,” he said on Saturday. He added that “no poor person” was visible at the event.

Gandhi also highlighted issues surrounding the Ram Temple construction in Ayodhya and criticised the BJP-led government for not adequately compensating those whose land was acquired for the project and the new international airport. He pointed out that local Ayodhya residents were absent from the Ram Temple inauguration, suggesting this contributed to the BJP’s defeat in the constituency.

“PM Modi wanted to contest the Lok Sabha poll from Ayodhya, but his surveyors said he would be defeated, and his political career would end,” Gandhi said. 

Invoking the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, Rahul emphasized Gujarat’s historical significance in shaping the Congress party’s ideology. “Our biggest leader who showed us the way when the Britishers were ruling us was Mahatma Gandhi, who gave this slogan of ‘daro mat, darao mat’ and the fire started from Gujarat,” he said.

Apart from meeting the families of the victims of the Rajkot fire, in which 27 people were killed, Gandhi also met the families and relatives of those who lost their lives in various tragedies in Gujarat in the past few years, including the boat capsize incident at Vadodara in January this year where 14 people were killed after a boat capsized in Motnath Lake and the Morbi bridge collapse where a British-era suspension bridge on the Machchhu river in Morbi collapsed in October 30, killing 135 people.