Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday questioned what he described as the disappearance of anti-incumbency against the BJP, invoking Saddam Hussein's Iraq and North Korea as he argued that democracies ordinarily see voters turn against governments and political leaders over time.
Addressing a press conference amid the escalating row over the Election Commission, Gandhi said anti-incumbency had historically affected Congress governments and regional parties but alleged that the phenomenon appeared to have stopped affecting the BJP.
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"Anti-incumbency does not exist in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It does not exist in North Korea. There is no democracy on this planet where anti-incumbency does not exist. And so, this has been a puzzle for us," Gandhi said.
"The same exact thing happens to leader after leader after leader. It happens to Congress leaders. It happens to regional parties. But for some reason, it never happens to Mr Narendra Modi. It does not happen to Mr Shah. It does not happen to the BJP," he added.
Gandhi cited Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to make his case, arguing that states which had previously witnessed political swings were no longer showing the same pattern.
"Haryana swings from one party to another for 50 years. Suddenly, anti-incumbency disappears. Maharashtra swings. Suddenly, it disappears. Uttar Pradesh swings. Sometimes Samajwadi, sometimes BSP, it disappears. Madhya Pradesh, it disappears. Gujarat, it disappears," he said.
Gandhi said the pattern had become a "fundamental question" for the Congress.
"We can understand the popularity of a person. We can understand the performance of a government, but we cannot understand how anti-incumbency disappears," he said.
The Congress leader also invoked former prime minister Indira Gandhi, arguing that even a leader at the peak of her popularity eventually faced political resistance.
"Indira Gandhi ji wins the Bangladesh war, is at the height of her popularity, and then suddenly, within a year or two, massive anti-incumbency, massive pressure," Gandhi said.
