Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday responded to Rahul Gandhi’s allegations about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He asked the Congress MP to introspect rather than blame the exercise for his party’s repeated election defeats. Shah also predicted that the Congress would lose the 2029 Lok Sabha elections for the fourth consecutive time.
“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.
“I also wish to ask Rahul ji: is this the result of an SIR? You dismiss the popularity of the BJP and (PM Narendra) Modi ji by attributing it to an ‘SIR’. You need to introspect,” he said.
His remarks came after the BJP won 90 of 104 seats across three urban local bodies in Gujarat, including 38 of the 44 seats in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation.
Referring to Gandhi’s student outreach programme, ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’, Shah said, “You can no longer gain the trust of the people by fabricating media events and ‘Jhooth Ki Goonj’.”
Background: INDIA bloc protest over SIR
Shah’s remarks came as Gandhi has been leading the INDIA bloc’s protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise. Gandhi has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah of shielding Kumar and pressuring the Election Commission. The Opposition has filed a petition against the EC.
Shah said the Congress needed to introspect instead of “questioning electoral processes” after repeated defeats. He also accused Gandhi of being disconnected from voters, arguing 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.
Shah cites BJP’s Gujarat victory
Shah, who is the Gandhinagar MP, claimed the BJP had increased its vote share in Gandhinagar by 10 percentage points compared with the previous election. He described the results as a reflection of continued support for PM Modi.
He also said 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.
Citing the recent bypolls in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, along with local body elections in Rajasthan and Tripura, the Union Home Minister argued that the Congress’s electoral setbacks could not be attributed solely to allegations concerning voter lists or EVMs. He pointed to the use of ballot papers in Tripura’s local polls, saying the BJP’s performance there countered claims that its victories depended on EVMs.
‘Congress has no reach in villages’
Shah said Gandhi could not claim to represent the country by mobilising Opposition leaders and supporters for the 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 connect with voters. He also alleged that Gandhi was trying to protect infiltrators amid the political row over the SIR.
The Union Home Minister thanked voters across states, including Gujarat, for backing the BJP and its allies. He maintained that the results reflected continued public confidence in the party and the NDA.