'Problem is with your leadership': Amit Shah says Congress defeat certain, 'SIR or no SIR'

Amit Shah, Union Home Minister. (File: PTI)

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday ripped into the Opposition and claimed that their electoral defeats had nothing to do with the revision of electoral rolls under the SIR exercise. Shah was speaking on the second day of the debate on electoral reforms, including SIR, in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

"The Opposition will continue to loose elections...SIR or no SIR...You raised the issue of vote-chori in Bihar, but lost despite undertaking a yatra all through the state," Shah said as he countered the Opposition's charges.

"The problem isn't with the voter list or EVMs. The problem is with your leadership. One day, Congress workers will ask questions and seek accountability from you," Shah said in an apparent reference to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi's "hydrogen bomb" allegation against the SIR, Shah said that the Congress begins to blame the election machinery only when it faces defeat. "But they never blame it when they win...Tab to app turant shapat le lete hain," he said.

Shah also referred to three instances of "vote-chori" by the Congress. "After independence, there was a vote on who would become the country's Prime Minister. At that time, for as many provinces as there were, the election involved one vote each from their Congress presidents. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel ji received 28 votes, and 2 votes went to Jawaharlal Nehru ji. But Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru ji became the PM."

The second incident of vote theft was when Indira Gandhi was elected from Rae Bareli through unethical means.

"The Allahabad High Court determined that Indira Gandhi did not win the election in a proper manner, so we declare her election null and void. This was vote theft. To cover up that vote theft, a law was introduced in Parliament stating that no case can be filed against the Prime Minister," he said.

The third vote theft, Shah said was when former Congress president Sonia Gandhi became a voter despite not being qualified.

"A dispute has now reached the court in Delhi that Sonia Gandhi ji was made a voter here even before becoming a citizen of this country," he said.

Responding to Rahul's allegations a day earlier, Shah said that under Article 327, the responsibilities of preparing electoral rolls, carrying out delimitation, and conducting elections—including the authority to recommend relevant legislation—have been entrusted to the Election Commission.

"Recently, a Congress leader claimed that the Election Commission has no right to conduct the SIR. However, according to the interpretation of Article 327, the Election Commission has full authority to prepare the electoral roll for this purpose," he added.