Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on Rahul Gandhi. He was responding to Gandhi’s campaign against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The remarks came soon after Gandhi and other INDIA bloc MPs held a joint press conference. They vowed to keep fighting for the restoration of the democratic process.
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The Numbers Shah Cited
Shah pointed to the BJP‘s Gujarat local body results, saying it won 90 of 104 seats across three bodies. He said the party took 38 of 44 seats in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, which lies in his constituency. The Aam Aadmi Party contested all 32 seats and, Shah said, lost its deposit in every one. He also cited the Tripura Gram Samiti polls, claiming the NDA won over 4,000 of about 4,600 seats while Congress won only 14.
‘Is This Because Of SIR?’
Shah’s main question was whether Congress’s long record of defeats could be blamed on the SIR. He said Congress last won in Gujarat in 1985 and has been out of power for three to five decades in Bengal, Tripura and Gujarat. He argued that the SIR began only after 2024. He also said Gandhi had been losing polls ever since he became the party’s leader, and that he should prepare for defeat in 2029.
An Unproven Allegation
Shah further alleged that Gandhi and Congress oppose the SIR in order to protect infiltrators. Reports say he offered no evidence for this claim in his remarks.
The Opposition’s Stand
The opposition insists that the issue is the fairness of electoral rolls and the conduct of the Election Commission, not past results. Its leaders have also gone to the Supreme Court over the matter. I did not find a detailed Congress reply to Shah’s latest remarks at the time of writing.
