New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday launched a strong attack on the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, accusing several leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, of “misleading the people” over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted in several states. He said untruths had been circulating for months and charged the Opposition with attempting to create confusion among voters. According to Shah, Rahul Gandhi was pushing a “vote chori” narrative to mislead the public about the SIR process.
Responding to concerns raised by the Leader of the Opposition, Shah insisted that SIR was a legally mandated exercise to ensure “pure electoral rolls”. He said, “The Opposition is worried as people of the country do not vote for them, and SIR will delete names of illegal immigrants who back them.”
He described SIR as a routine clean-up operation, saying, “SIR is conducted to delete names from the electoral roll of people who are dead and those who are foreign nationals.” He added that no political party objected to SIR “from 1952 to 2004” and said the first such revision was carried out in 1952 when Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister.
‘EC has full mandate to run SIR’
Amit Shah reminded the House that the Election Commission was acting well within its powers. “EC has a full mandate to prepare clean electoral rolls under Article 326 of the Constitution,” he said during the debate on election reforms. He added that SIR was the Commission’s constitutional responsibility and repeated his view that Parliament “cannot discuss SIR as it is in the domain of EC.”
He also dismissed suggestions that the government was reluctant to debate the issue. “The impression was created that the government was not ready for debate, but the BJP-led NDA never shies away from debate,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi challenges Amit Shah mid-speech
The session took a sharp turn when Rahul Gandhi interrupted Shah’s speech, challenging him to a debate on allegations of “vote chori”. The exchange briefly halted proceedings and heightened tensions in the House, turning the discussion on electoral reforms into a high-pitched political face-off.
With both sides refusing to relent, the confrontation underlined the deepening divide over the SIR exercise and the broader battle over electoral integrity ahead of upcoming polls.