Shah rubbishes Rahul’s vote-rigging allegations against EC

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday rubbished the ‘vote theft allegations’ raised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the Manorama News Conclave, 2025 in Kochi, he rejected the allegations of vote rigging raised by Rahul Gandhi. Shah said Rahul is making allegations on the road, and has not gone to the Election Commission.

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“How can the Election Commission respond to what is said on the road?,” Shah asked Regarding the Opposition’s allegations against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, Shah said Congress and other Opposition parties were creating unnecessary doubts in the minds of the people. Shah accused the Congress of creating unnecessary controversy over the exercise.

He said that they had the opportunity to raise objections at the constituency, district, and state levels, but had not submitted any complaint on SIR so far. They are playing tricks , but it will not work among the people of Bihar. They know everything, said Amit Shah.

” If any citizen or political party has any complaint regarding the SIR, they can approach the Returning Officer. If they are not satisfied with it, they can approach the District Collector and later the State Chief Election Commissioner. But the Congress and other opposition parties have not filed such a complaint yet. What kind of politics is this? They are creating doubts among the people without giving complaints, even though there is a mechanism to complain. It will not work among the people of Bihar. They know everything, “ said Amit Shah.

To a query regarding the implementation of SIR in other states, the home minister said that it was for the Election Commission to decide.
“The Election Commission has decided to conduct SIR across the country. In Bihar’s voters’ list, there were 22 lakh people who had died. There is a possibility that bogus votes would be cast. So, should their names be removed or not? It is a matter of common sense,” he said.

Sharpening his attack on Rahul Gandhi, Shah asked as to why he(Rahul) was opposing the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill which ensures the removal of elected representatives arrested or detained on serious criminal charges from office “Would the people want the Prime Minister to run the country from jail? Should the chief secretary, DGP, and home secretary go to the jail to get the PM/CM to sign files?” asked Amit Shah , on the bill which was introduced in the Lok Sabha and referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee on Wednesday.

The Home Minister said the framers of the Constitution never anticipated a situation wherein jailed chief ministers would try to run the government from jail.

“Now, there was an incident where a Chief Minister ran the government from jail. So, should the Constitution be amended or not? There was also BJP governments in power, but we never faced such a situation,” Shah said, indicating that if Kejriwal had resigned following his arrest, this new bill would not have been introduced.

Launching a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi, Shah asked what had changed for him in the last 15 years between tearing up an ordinance introduced by the Manmohan Singh government that sought to circumvent a Supreme Court verdict that said that MPs and MLA convicted with a minimum two-year sentence would be immediately disqualified, and opposing the current bill.

“The ordinance was brought in to help Lalu Prasad Yadav by the Manmohan Singh government . Rahul Gandhi, in the name of morality, tore up a cabinet-cleared copy of the ordinance in public. The same Rahul Gandhi is now seen embracing Lalu ji at Gandhi Maidan,” Shah said.

The Home Minister accused the Opposition alliance’s Vice-President candidate Justice B Sudershan Reddy of “supporting” Naxalism, saying if he had not delivered the Salwa Judum judgement, extremist Left movement in the country would have ended before 2020.

“Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He gave Salwa Judum judgment. If the Salwa Judum judgement had not been given, the Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020,” he said.

Amit Shah claimed that the BJP would secure 25% of the votes in the upcoming local body elections in Kerala as the people of the state will break free from the usual UDF-LDF pattern.

Stating that hundreds of BJP workers have sacrificed their lives for upholding the ideology and for the progress of Kerala, Amit Shah said C. Sadanandan, who was nominated by the President to the Rajya Sabha recently , is one such person who lost both his legs.