Morning Pulse: Shah answers the street with scorecards, and the Congress answers with a rigging charge

The government side finally spoke, and it chose numbers over procedure. Last night we noted that the BJP had not answered the opposition's Tuesday press conference. Within an hour of our Evening Pulse, Union Home Minister Amit Shah did, telling Rahul Gandhi in effect that the voter-roll fight is a cover for lost elections. By midnight the Congress had replied that the real contest of 2029 is already being rigged. Neither side engaged the other's evidence. Each pointed to its own.

Shah spoke to reporters in Delhi on Tuesday evening, ThePrint and Asianet Newsable reported, both carrying ANI. He cited the BJP's showing in Rajasthan's urban local body polls, where he said the party won 90% of municipal corporations, 66% of municipal councils and 65% of municipalities, and claimed AAP lost its deposit in more than 85% of wards. In Tripura's village committee polls, he said the Congress won only 14 of about 4,600 seats. "These elections serve as a lesson for Rahul Gandhi," ThePrint quoted him as saying. The seat totals he gave for the NDA in Tripura did not add up cleanly in the published accounts, so we have left them out.

He also pointed to recent bypolls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, where he said the Congress won no seat, The Daily Jagran and Scroll reported. His argument was simple: the Congress was losing before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) began, so the revision cannot explain its defeats. Scroll and Prabhasakshi reported that he went further and accused Gandhi of trying to shield "infiltrators" by opposing the revision. He told Gandhi and his allies to prepare for "a crushing defeat" in 2029. That is a political boast, not a forecast we can test, and we report it only as his claim.

The Congress reply came late at night. Communications chief Jairam Ramesh said on X that Shah was back with his "3 Bs - Bombast, Bluff and Bluster", ANI and Scroll reported. He alleged that Shah was already preparing to manipulate the 2029 election and said Shah would face investigations if the government lost power. These are allegations; neither report carried evidence for them, and we found no BJP response to Ramesh.

The courts again set the pace. On Tuesday evening, Justice Amit Mahajan of the Delhi High Court issued notice on a plea by the Indian Youth Congress and its president, Uday Bhanu Chib, against a Delhi Police order of October 1 that refused permission for a protest at Jantar Mantar against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Asianet Newsable and The Daily Jagran reported. Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, for the police, argued the plea had become pointless because Jantar Mantar had been de-notified as a protest site following a Supreme Court order of October 9. The case returns on November 17. That leaves the opposition's promised legal challenge to the de-notification without a quick answer from this court.

The loops from last night: we found no report this morning that the 14 defects in the INDIA bloc's SIR petition have been cured, so it is still not listed. We also found no public response from the Election Commission or Gyanesh Kumar to the resignation demand, and no report of police notices to leaders named in Monday's FIRs. The opposition has still not revealed the next step Gandhi called a surprise.

Markets took a breather after Tuesday's 1,109-point jump. The Sensex opened almost flat and the Nifty slipped below 22,700 in early trade, while IT stocks led gains for a second day, Business Standard and IANS reported. Both noted Brent crude near $106 to $107 a barrel. Business Standard said the rupee opened at about 95.01 to the dollar, up 27 paise, and IANS said the currency had gained nearly 1.5% over two sessions after the RBI moved to curb speculation.