Home Minister Shah Says He Is Ready for Parliamentary Session on Election Allegations
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Home Minister Amit Shah said he is willing to call a special parliamentary session on vote-theft allegations, while accusing opposition leaders of avoiding parliamentary scrutiny in favor of street mobilization.
Home Minister Amit Shah told party workers in Lucknow that he is prepared to call a special session of Parliament to examine allegations of vote theft, but said opposition leader Rahul Gandhi would not agree to discuss the matter in the legislature. Shah added that Gandhi and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav prefer to whip up street protests rather than face debate and scrutiny in Parliament.
Shah’s remarks came as the opposition coalition plans a public “impeachment” of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday and a large protest at the Ramlila ground on Sunday, actions the government has described as attempts to undermine democratic institutions while the opposition presents them as accountability measures.
The opposition’s public impeachment event, originally scheduled for Friday at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence, was postponed due to heavy rain. Critics of the commission have accused it of conducting an intensive revision of the electoral roll to favor the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
During a BJP state working committee meeting, Shah contrasted the BJP’s recent electoral successes in states such as Odisha and West Bengal with the opposition’s lack of recent victories, noting that the Samajwadi Party’s last state win occurred when its founder Mulayam Singh Yadav was alive. He suggested that opposition leaders routinely blame the election commission after losing elections instead of confronting their own political failures.
"We challenge Rahul and Akhilesh to discuss every allegation inside Parliament," Shah said.
The statements reflect heightened political tension ahead of the scheduled protests and the upcoming parliamentary session.