A day after the Lok Sabha descended into a heated confrontation over electoral reforms, Rahul Gandhi escalated his criticism of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging that the BJP leader appeared visibly “under pressure” during their clash in Parliament.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the Leader of the Opposition claimed Shah looked “nervous” and fumbled as tempers flared in the House. “Amit Shah ji was very nervous in Parliament yesterday. His hands were trembling, he used the wrong language. Amit Shah ji is under a lot of mental pressure, which the whole country saw,” Gandhi said.
Shah Dodged Debate Challenge: Rahul
Gandhi insisted that he had openly challenged the Home Minister to debate the allegations he made in his recent press conference on what he called “vote chori”, but received no response. “The things I have said, he did not address, did not give any proof. I directly challenged Amit Shah ji to debate me on my press conference, and no response came to that either,” he said. “What the truth is, you all know.”
His comments followed a fiery face-off in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, where a discussion on electoral reforms quickly unravelled into a tense verbal duel. Shah defended the government’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, arguing it was essential to remove illegal immigrants from voter lists. Gandhi, however, demanded that Shah address the Opposition’s accusations that the BJP and the Election Commission had colluded to engineer large-scale voter fraud.
When Gandhi pressed him to publicly debate the charges raised in his “vote theft” press conferences, Shah rebuffed the challenge, asserting that the Opposition could not dictate the structure of his reply. “I want to make something clear,” he said. “I have been elected to legislative assemblies and the Parliament for 30 years. I have extensive experience… The Parliament will not work based on your wishes.”
Shah then launched a blistering attack on the Gandhi-Nehru family, alleging that the “first instance of vote chori” occurred during the selection of India’s first Prime Minister. He also referred to an old court case claiming Sonia Gandhi had cast a vote before obtaining Indian citizenship.
The exchange ended with Gandhi and several Opposition MPs staging a walkout mid-speech.
Later that evening, Gandhi renewed his criticism, accusing Shah of avoiding every key question—from transparent voter rolls to accountability in electronic voting machines to protections for the Chief Election Commissioner. In a post on X, he described the Home Minister’s response in Parliament as “panicked” and “completely defensive.”
