‘Anti-Incumbency Strong Against Congress’: BJP Hits Back At Rahul Gandhi’s Charges Over ECI-SIR Row

News india ‘Anti-Incumbency Strong Against Congress’: BJP Hits Back At Rahul Gandhi’s Charges Over ECI-SIR Row

Last Updated:September 25, 2026, 10:38 IST

Rahul Gandhi had warned that the public's “sacred belief” in elections was weakening and said, “if tomorrow, the BJP sweeps elections, no one will believe it.”

The BJP on Thursday hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of the Election Commission amid the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) row and his claim that anti-incumbency has seemingly stopped affecting the BJP, with party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi turning the argument towards the Congress’s electoral record.

Trivedi also defended the Election Commission’s SIR of electoral rolls, questioning the basis of The Indian Express report that said two Election Commissioners had raised objections to decisions taken by the poll panel.

Rahul Gandhi’s Anti-Incumbency Charge

Addressing a press conference, the Leader of the Opposition criticised the government and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over The Indian Express Report.

Gandhi said that “our elections are fundamentally broken." He also warned that the public’s “sacred belief" in elections was weakening and said, “if tomorrow, the BJP sweeps elections, no one will believe it."

He also played out some of the videos in which PM Modi and Shah claimed that they will remain in power for many years. Shah was heard saying that the BJP will stay in power for the next 30 years, and the prime minister raised the slogan ‘Abki Baar 400 Paar’.

Gandhi said that such claims cannot be made by any political leader in a democracy and stated that a fundamental force called “anti-incumbency" exists in India, which eventually starts resisting.

The leader mentioned former prime ministers Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee among the leaders who have faced anti-incumbency.

However, Gandhi said that this does not happen with PM Modi and BJP and one can now understand the reason behind it.

“We can understand the popularity of a person, the performance of a government, but anti-incumbency completely disappearing? It does not exist in Iraq of Saddam Hussain and in North Korea," Gandhi argued.

BJP Retorts To Gandhi’s Charge

On Gandhi’s argument that anti-incumbency has traditionally affected governments in India but has seemingly not worked against the BJP, Trivedi said the same phenomenon had, according to him, been evident in the Congress’s electoral history.

“After Sonia Gandhi entered politics in December 1997, the Congress repeated its government in Madhya Pradesh once, in 1998, but has not repeated its government in any state since then. In Kerala, governments used to be repeated every time, but on the previous occasion, the Congress was expected to return instead of the Communist Party, which did not happen because Rahul Gandhi had set foot there," he said.

Trivedi argued that the Congress’s electoral difficulties had extended across several states and said the party had not returned to power in Tamil Nadu since 1967 or in Bengal since 1977.

“The Congress has never returned to power in Tamil Nadu since 1967, a time when the BJP did not even exist. Congress has not returned to power in Bengal since 1977; the Communists ruled there for 34 years from 1977 to 2011. Rahul Gandhi neither sees this nor understands it," he said.

He also cited the Congress’s dependence on allies in some constituencies, referring to its victories in Rae Bareli and Amethi with support from the Samajwadi Party and Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi’s victories in Wayanad with the support of the Indian Union Muslim League.

Trivedi further contrasted the present electoral system with the period when the Congress held power for long stretches, referring to booth capturing, ballot-box looting and violence during elections.

“There was a time when the Congress held power for long periods, an era before voter ID cards, characterised by booth capturing, the looting of ballot boxes and gunfire. In states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, hardly any election went without people being killed or injured. Back then, anti-incumbency did not work against the Congress. Since elections have become transparent, Central paramilitary forces are deployed instead of local police forces, live CCTV footage comes… since then, they (the Congress) have not been able to come back to power," he said.

BJP Defends ECI’s SIR Process

Responding to the report on differences within the three-member Election Commission, Trivedi questioned the absence of any direct statement from the Election Commissioners in the report.

“Does the news report have any quote from the Election Commission? Yes or no? If not, on what basis is someone saying that the Election Commissioner said this? With regard to any news report, I say this while respecting the freedom of the press, when it comes to any news report, the person concerned is duly questioned and their statement taken. Is that statement quoted? No. Do you have even a single report stating that decisions were not unanimous? No," he said.

Trivedi further questioned whether there had been any instance where all three Election Commissioners were absent from a press conference.

“Is there even a single press conference where all three (Election) Commissioners were not present? No. So what is the basis of this? I want to ask the Congress party a direct question: a report in which there is no quote from an Election Commissioner, even off-record, is mentioned; what is its basis?" he asked.

Trivedi further maintained that decisions of the three-member poll panel are based on majority and said differences between individual members would not by themselves prevent a decision from being taken.

“…there are three Election Commissioners…if any two have differing views on something, that decision cannot take place because it can only happen with majority," he said.

EC Clarifies On SIR Report

Meanwhile, Election Commission sources said on Wednesday that decisions taken by the poll panel, including those relating to the SIR, had been unanimous and approved by both Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner.

The clarification came after a report detailed objections allegedly raised by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over several decisions.

The report said the two commissioners had objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to various decisions and orders.

The sources said the Commissioners could hold different views during internal deliberations, but the decisions ultimately taken by the Commission were unanimous.

With inputs from PTI

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Prisha Vibhavari

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