Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday cautioned his party colleagues and others against celebrating the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) electoral win in West Bengal, asserting that the results reflect a larger threat to Indian democracy.

In a strongly worded statement on X, Gandhi said some sections within the Congress and outside were “gloating” over TMC’s loss. He warned that such reactions miss the bigger picture. “The theft of Assam and Bengal’s mandate is a big step forward by the BJP in its mission to destroy Indian democracy,” he said, urging everyone to “put petty politics aside.”

Gandhi added that the issue transcends individual parties. “This is not about one party or another,” he added.

BJP ends TMC’s rule in West Bengal

His remarks come a day after the Election Commission declared results of the 2026 Assembly elections. In a historic verdict, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stormed to power in West Bengal, winning 206 seats in the 294-member Assembly and ending the TMC’s 15-year rule. The TMC was reduced to just 81 seats, with party supremo Mamata Banerjee suffering a personal setback as she too lost her Bhabanipur seat to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari by over 15,000 votes.

In Assam, the BJP-led NDA secured a third consecutive victory, with the BJP alone winning a record 82 seats out of 126.

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Rahul Gandhi had earlier echoed TMC chief Mamata Banerjee’s allegations of large-scale electoral malpractice. He claimed that more than 100 seats were “stolen” in Bengal and described the outcomes in both states as “clear cases of elections being stolen by the BJP with the support of the Election Commission.”

The Congress leader had agreed with Banerjee’s charge of mandate theft, drawing parallels with previous elections in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

While the BJP has hailed the results as a genuine reflection of people’s will and a rejection of “corruption and appeasement politics,” the opposition maintains serious concerns over the electoral process.

Shashi Tharoor praises BJP’s campaign strategy

Earlier in the day, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strong performance in West Bengal and Assam, saying they are “very good at conducting elections.”

Appreciating the party’s campaign efforts, Tharoor said the BJP has a “strong organisational strength” and that others can learn from the way it operates.

“They (PM Modi and HM Amit Shah) have done a good job in Bengal and Assam and that’s partially because they are very good at conducting elections. They are professionally organised. They have strong organisational strength. They put a lot of resources, including financial resources, into their campaign,” Tharoor told news agency ANI.

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“There are things that all of us can learn from that. I would only hope that their message will be one of uniting Indians and not dividing them,” he added.

While praising the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shashi Tharoor also urged his own party, the Indian National Congress, to carry out some “very serious introspection” after returning to power in Kerala by defeating the Left government in the state.

The Congress-led United Democratic Front secured a strong victory in the Kerala assembly elections this year. Congress won 63 out of 140 seats, while its ally, the Indian Union Muslim League, added 22 seats, giving the alliance a comfortable majority.