Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday responded sharply to Rahul Gandhi's allegations regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, urging the Congress leader to reflect on his party's repeated election defeats rather than blaming the exercise. Shah also predicted that the Congress would suffer its fourth consecutive defeat in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
“The SIR only came into effect after 2024. Ever since you emerged as the principal leader of the Congress, and subsequently as its president and the Leader of the Opposition, the party has consistently lost elections,” Shah told reporters in Delhi.
He questioned whether the Congress's electoral setbacks could be attributed to SIR and accused Rahul Gandhi of dismissing the BJP's popularity and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public support by blaming the revision exercise. Shah urged him to introspect instead.
His comments followed the BJP's victory in three urban local bodies in Gujarat, where it secured 90 out of 104 seats, including 38 of the 44 seats in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation.
Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi's student outreach initiative, Chhatron Ki Goonj, Shah said the Congress could no longer win public confidence through what he described as manufactured media events and “Jhooth Ki Goonj”.
Shah's remarks came as Rahul Gandhi led the INDIA bloc's protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise. Gandhi has accused Modi and Shah of protecting Kumar and exerting pressure on the Election Commission. The Opposition has also filed a petition against the poll body.
Shah said the Congress should examine the reasons behind its repeated defeats instead of questioning electoral procedures. He also accused Rahul Gandhi of being out of touch with voters and argued that protests and allegations would not help the party regain public support.
“I want to tell Rahul Gandhi and his colleagues to once again prepare for a crushing defeat in the 2029 general elections. The NDA is poised to win with a landslide majority, and the Congress is set to lose for the fourth consecutive time,” he said.
AMIT SHAH CITES BJP'S GUJARAT VICTORY
Shah, who represents Gandhinagar in Parliament, claimed the BJP had increased its vote share in the constituency by 10 percentage points compared with the previous election. He described the results as evidence of continued public support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He also asserted that the Congress had not won an election in Gujarat since 1985.
“In Tripura, the Congress hasn't had a Chief Minister in 33 years. In Bengal, the Congress hasn't won in 54 years. In Gujarat, the Congress has consistently lost for five decades, since 1985,” he said.
Referring to recent bypolls in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, as well as local body elections in Rajasthan and Tripura, Shah argued that the Congress's electoral losses could not be explained solely by allegations involving voter lists or electronic voting machines.
He pointed out that ballot papers were used in Tripura's local elections and argued that the BJP's performance there challenged claims that its electoral victories depended on EVMs.
'CONGRESS HAS NO REACH IN VILLAGES'
Shah said Rahul Gandhi could not claim to represent the country simply by bringing opposition leaders and supporters together for anti-SIR protests in Delhi.
“The nation's voice is in the fields, barns, villages, remote hills, forests, and even on the banks of rivers. You have no reach there,” he said.
He accused the Congress of failing to establish a connection with voters and alleged that Rahul Gandhi was attempting to protect infiltrators amid the wider political controversy surrounding the SIR exercise.
The Union Home Minister thanked voters across several states, including Gujarat, for supporting the BJP and its allies. He maintained that the election results demonstrated that public confidence in the BJP and the NDA remained strong.
