Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday criticised Rahul Gandhi over the Congress’s electoral setbacks, arguing that the party had repeatedly lost elections since Gandhi became a prominent leader, party president and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
The remarks came after Gandhi met INDIA bloc and civil society leaders over tea to discuss challenging the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the NDA government over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and claims of ‘vote theft’.
Key Takeaways
Shah thanked voters for the BJP’s victories in Gujarat civic polls and recent by-elections, pointing out that the Congress had not won a Gujarat Assembly election since 1985. He questioned whether the SIR process could explain the party’s prolonged electoral decline and urged Gandhi to introspect.
The Union Home Minister said the Congress had failed to win bypoll seats in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. He highlighted the BJP’s victory in a Congress-held seat in Nagaon and the party’s performance in Rajasthan’s local body polls.
Referring to the Tripura Gram Samiti elections, Shah claimed the NDA had won more than 4,000 of the 4,600 seats despite voter turnout of 77.5 per cent, while the Congress secured only 14 seats. He noted that the Tripura elections were conducted using ballot papers, arguing that the results challenged opposition allegations that electronic voting machines (EVMs) favoured the BJP.
The Minister further claimed that the Congress had remained out of power in Gujarat for 41 years, Tripura for 33 years and West Bengal for 54 years, arguing that these setbacks predated the introduction of the SIR process after 2024.
Shah said Gandhi’s protests would not win public trust and urged the Congress to reach out to people across the country rather than pursue what he described as ‘negative politics’. He accused Gandhi of protecting infiltrators by opposing the SIR and predicted a sweeping NDA victory in 2029, which he said would mark the Congress’s fourth consecutive defeat.
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