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Ready for special session on ‘vote chori’, but Rahul Gandhi will never agree: Amit Shah
Amit Shah’s sharp attack comes ahead of the Opposition’s plan to hold a “public impeachment” of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday
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Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was ready to call a special session of Parliament to discuss vote theft allegations levelled by the Opposition, but added that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi won’t agree to the discussion.
“I am ready to call a special session of Parliament to discuss vote chori (vote theft allegations). But Rahul baba will never agree. He will never discuss the issue in Parliament but will create a nuisance on the street,” Shah told party workers in Lucknow.
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“I challenge Rahul (Gandhi) and Akhilesh (Yadav) to discuss every allegation inside Parliament. The allegations against the Election Commission are baseless. But they don’t want a discussion; they want drama on the streets,” Shah said.
The home minister’s sharp attack comes ahead of the Opposition’s plan to hold a “public impeachment” of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday and a mega protest at the Ramlila ground on Sunday against what they call the “demolition of democracy”.
The INDIA bloc planned to hold the “public impeachment” at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence on Friday but the event had to be put off due to unseasonal rains. The Opposition has also stepped up its attack on CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the special intensive revision of the electoral roll, which alleges that the exercise was a strategic voter roll clean-up drive by the poll body to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Shah, who was speaking at a daylong meeting of BJP’s state working committee meeting, contrasted the performance of the BJP with that of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, and spoke about how the BJP had come to power in states such as Odisha and West Bengal.
In contrast, Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi hadn’t been able to lead their party to power. The last state election that the Samajwadi Party won was when Mulayam Singh Yadav, the SP founder and Akhilesh’s father was alive. “You have not won a single election on your own. The same is true for Rahul baba,” Shah said.
But after losing elections, they blamed the umpire. “After losing the match, they are blaming the umpire and alleging vote theft,” he said.
