One-on-one with Rahul, ‘vote chori’ charge on Gandhis: 5 standouts from Amit Shah’s blistering Lok Sabha speech
Amit Shah used the Lok Sabha floor to mount his sharpest attack yet on the Congress’ leadership and electoral claims.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday delivered a 90-minute, point-by-point presentation of the government’s stance on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the Lok Sabha, triggering some of the session’s most heated moments as he and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi sparred fiercely.
Gandhi interrupted him mid-speech to demand a direct debate on his “vote chori” allegations, and the Opposition later staged a walkout, but Shah continued, using the floor to mount his sharpest attack yet on the Congress’ leadership and electoral claims in the Lok Sabha.
1. Shah's three instances of ‘vote chori’
The home minister opened his address by accusing three generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family of what he termed “vote chori.”
He said that post-Independence, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had 28 proposers while Jawaharlal Nehru had only two, “yet Nehru still became Prime Minister – this was vote chori.”
The HM added that Indira Gandhi committed the “second vote theft” by granting herself immunity after her election was struck down by court.
On Sonia Gandhi, Shah said a dispute now before a civil court concerns “how she became a voter before becoming a citizen,” drawing sharp protests from the Congress benches.
2. 'I decide what to say': Shah tells Rahul | Watch
The session escalated when Rahul Gandhi cut into Shah’s speech, challenging him to publicly debate the findings of his three press conferences on alleged “vote chori” by the BJP and the Election Commission.
“Let’s debate my press conferences… Amit Shah ji, I challenge you let's have a debate on my three press conferences,” Gandhi said.
Shah shot back that he would decide the order of his remarks, adding, “I have long experience… they should be patient. I will answer every question, but they cannot decide the order of my speech.”
The LoP later said the response showed the home minister was “defensive and nervous.”
When Opposition MPs walked out soon after, Shah remarked that regardless of the number of boycotts, the NDA would continue its policy of “detect, delete and deport” illegal immigrants.
3. Reason for Congress’ defeat is its leadership, says HM
Turning his attack to the Congress’ electoral setbacks, Amit Shah said the party had begun blaming everyone except itself.
“If a journalist questions them, he becomes a BJP agent. If they lose a case, the judge is blamed. If they lose an election, they blame EVMs,” he said.
He added that after the EVM narrative failed, Congress leaders shifted to “vote chori” yet “still lost Bihar.” The real reason, he said, was “your leadership, not the EVM or the voters’ list.”
He added that he hoped Congress workers would one day hold their leaders accountable.
4. Amit Shah responds to Rahul’s ‘H-bomb’ claims
The BJP veteran also took aim at Gandhi’s press conference, saying, “In a press conferenece on November 5, he (Rahul Gandhi) said he had dropped an “atomic bomb” by claiming 501 votes were registered at a single house in Haryana.”
Citing the Election Commission’s clarification, Shah said there was “nothing irregular” about the address. House No. 265, he said, was a “one-acre ancestral plot with multiple families and generations living together, all continuing to use a shared house number,” he added that this system remains unchanged since the Congress governed the state. “This is not a fake house,” Shah said.
5. Amit Shah’s warning to TMC, DMK
The minister ended with a warning to the TMC and DMK, saying that if they keep opposing SIR in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, they “will be wiped out” in next year’s assembly elections, reported PTI news agency.
Tracing SIR’s history, he noted that “no party had objected to it from 1952 to 2004”, including during the tenures of Nehru, Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.
“No party opposed this process because it keeps elections clean and democracy healthy,” he added.
