Union Home Minister Amit Shah challenges opposition leaders to parliamentary debate over voter roll controversy

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday called on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav to debate the ongoing row over electoral rolls in a special session of Parliament. Speaking at a BJP state executive committee meeting in Lucknow, Shah said, "I challenge you both right here and now: the Bharatiya Janata Party is fully prepared to discuss this in Parliament. We have nothing to hide. Let us convene a special session of Parliament."

Shah added that the opposition "refuse[s] to let Parliament function; instead, they just create a ruckus" and claimed Rahul Gandhi would "never discuss the issue in Parliament but will create a nuisance on the street." He also highlighted the BJP’s recent electoral successes in several states and warned that the opposition, after recent defeats in West Bengal, were accusing the election process of cheating.

The Congress party had planned a "public impeachment" of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls, a move it postponed due to rain and rescheduled for Saturday, a day before a rally by the INDIA bloc. The opposition alleges the SIR removed about 13 crore names, roughly 14 percent of the pre-SIR rolls, and has called for the CEC’s resignation.

Parliament’s recent sessions have seen limited business due to repeated adjournments over the SIR, and previous attempts by opposition MPs to move a motion for the CEC’s removal were rejected by parliamentary officials. The challenge from Shah follows the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections, where the BJP retained six of the eleven seats contested, while the Samajwadi Party secured five.