Home Minister Amit Shah recently pointed out the electoral setbacks faced by the Opposition, particularly the Congress, since the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. During the debate on election reforms, Shah suggested that the Congress’s defeats were due to leadership failures and organisational weakness, not vote irregularities. Instead of introspecting, he said, the party was “deflecting blame by peddling a false narrative of vote theft."

Shah’s comments do not entirely dismiss the possibility of malpractice in elections. Given the vast and diverse nature of Indian elections, violations like voter deletions and booth-level irregularities do occur. However, there is truth in the claim that the Congress lacks the organisational strength to counter such practices effectively. The party, which once had a strong booth-level presence, now struggles to deploy representatives during critical electoral processes.

A recent example of this decline was evident during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh. Reports indicated that the Congress failed to appoint Booth Level Agents (BLAs) in at least 17 districts. This is a significant collapse of the party’s electoral machinery in a key state.........

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