Amit Shah hits back at Rahul Gandhi over SIR row, cites Congress’ bypoll losses
Babushahi Bureau
New Delhi, October 13, 2026: nion Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying the Congress should introspect over its electoral performance instead of attributing the BJP’s victories to the voter-roll exercise.
Addressing the issue in Delhi, Shah said the Congress had failed to win a single seat in the recent by-elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Citing the results, Shah said the BJP won the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat in Assam by a margin of around 1.42 lakh votes. In West Bengal, the BJP won Nandigram by more than 1.22 lakh votes and Rejinagar by over 75,000 votes. In Puducherry, the BJP’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally, the All India N.R. Congress (AINRC), won the Thattanchavady seat by 8,482 votes.
Questioning Rahul Gandhi’s claims, Shah said, “You dismiss the popularity of the BJP and Modi ji by attributing it to an SIR. You need to introspect.”
He also questioned the Congress’s long-term electoral performance, saying its failure to win elections in a major state where it had once held power for decades required serious reflection.
Shah said the Congress had failed to win any seat in the by-elections held in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. He cited the results to argue that the BJP’s electoral performance could not simply be attributed to the SIR exercise.
His remarks came amid a wider political dispute over the revision of electoral rolls, with the Congress raising concerns about the process and the BJP defending it.