Parliament Winter Session: Rahul Gandhi challenges Amit Shah to debate on his 3 PCs on 'vote chori'

Home Minister Amit Shah during the discussion in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Pic/PTI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi sparred over the allegations of 'vote chori' in the Parliament on Day 8 of the Winter Session. Soon after Shah's address in the Lok Sabha, the Leader of the Opposition asked the Home Minister to conduct a debate on his three press conferences (PCs) pertaining to his claims of 'voter Chori', news agency ANI reported. To this, the Home Minister retorted, "Parliament won't function as per his wish."

The heated exchange between the duo occurred when Gandhi interjected Shah when he was addressing the Lok Sabha on the discussion on electoral reforms.

Slamming the Opposition over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Home Minister stated that he has answers for all their allegations, including Gandhi's three PCs, ANI reported.

"In his press conference, the LoP levelled allegations that the voter list is not corrected and needs to be rectified. So, what is SIR? It is the procedure to sanitise the voter list," Shah said.

The Home Minister further added, "He is opposing even when we are undertaking the process... Your defeat is certain; the voter list doesn't have anything to do with it. He said that the BJP never has to face anti-incumbency. Anti-incumbency is only against those who work against the public interest."

Shah also emphasised, "It is true that the BJP had to face anti-incumbency very rarely... But it is not as if we have never lost any election after 2014... Double standards won't work in a democracy. When you win, EC is great. When you lose, EC is useless and works at BJP's behest. I have answers for various of their allegations, including three press conferences."

Interrupting the Home Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha challenged him to a debate on his three PCs regarding allegations of 'vote chori'.

Gandhi, while interrupting the Home Minister, emphasised, "Yesterday, I asked why Election Commissioners were given full immunity. We want to understand their thinking behind it. He (Amit Shah) talked about Haryana. He cited one example. There are several other examples. There are 19 lakh fake voters there. Actually, let us have a debate at my press conference. Amit Shah ji, I challenge you to have a debate on my three press conferences."

Responding to the Opposition leader's remarks, the Home Minister said that the former would not decide the order of his speech and should remain patient.

To this, the Home Minister said, "The Leader of Opposition (LoP) asked for answers to his questions. 'You can't run the parliament with your obstinacy. I will decide the order of my speech. The parliament won't function like this. He should be patient. I will answer each and every point."

Gandhi slammed the Home Minister and called it a "completely defensive response". "This is a frightened response; this is not a genuine response," said the Congress lawmaker.

The Leader of Opposition has held at least three major press conferences since August, during which he has alleged widespread "voter fraud and manipulation by the Election Commission (EC) in collusion with the ruling BJP."

The conferences focused on alleged systematic voter deletion and duplicate entries in Karnataka and Haryana electoral rolls.

(With inputs from ANI)