Now Reading: Irani calls Rahul Gandhi ‘prince in perpetual waiting’ over SIR row
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Irani calls Rahul Gandhi ‘prince in perpetual waiting’ over SIR row
The Story in Brief
BJP leader Smriti Irani on Tuesday, 3 November, called Congress leader Rahul Gandhi a 'prince in perpetual waiting' and accused the opposition of undermining democratic institutions by questioning the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Addressing a press conference in Kolkata, Irani claimed the Congress had lost 56 assembly elections between 2014 and 2025, well before the current SIR exercise, and alleged it was blaming the poll panel for its electoral defeats instead of introspecting on leadership failures.
Irani said around 20 lakh booth-level agents from opposition parties had been part of the door-to-door verification process. She alleged that out of roughly 13 crore names removed from draft rolls, about three crore belonged to deceased voters, one crore were duplicates, and nearly three crore could not be traced at registered addresses. The BJP leader also accused the TMC of accommodating infiltrators in West Bengal for electoral gain, and questioned Gandhi's remarks during overseas visits.
Meanwhile, the BJP's Mizoram unit defended SIR as a constitutionally mandated exercise that had been conducted 12 times since 1952, with 10 under Congress governments. State leader Delson Notlia rejected opposition claims that the exercise caused Congress's electoral decline. ThePrint reports that challenges to SIR have reached the Supreme Court, where the matter remains pending.
Indian Opinion Analysis
All four sources report Smriti Irani's Kolkata press conference identically on the central attack, calling Rahul Gandhi 'prince in perpetual waiting', citing 56 Congress assembly losses since 2014, and accusing the TMC of sheltering infiltrators. The New Indian Express and Times Now lead on Irani's rhetoric, while India Today adds her point about 10 of 12 SIR exercises occurring under Congress governments. ThePrint, through PTI wire, shifts focus to the Mizoram unit's constitutional defence of SIR and its Supreme Court reference. No source carries the opposition's rebuttal or Gandhi's response. The uniform framing across outlets is a straight report of the BJP's offensive with no independent verification of the claims about duplicate or deceased voters. The concrete open point is the Supreme Court's pending consideration of challenges to the SIR exercise, which ThePrint is the only source to name.
Coverage: 3 sources, 3 neutral
Sources (3): Syndicated copy (carried by newindianexpress.com, timesnownews.com), indiatoday.in (neutral report), theprint.in (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.
Update, 3 November 2026: this story now draws on 4 sources.
