A day after heated exchanges in the Lok Sabha over electoral reforms, Rahul Gandhi escalated his criticism of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging that Shah appeared visibly unsettled and mentally strained during their confrontation. Gandhi told reporters that the Home Minister’s demeanour in Parliament — “trembling hands,” “wrong language,” and an overall sense of nervousness — showed that he was “under a lot of mental pressure,” something he claimed was evident to the entire country.
Gandhi said he had directly challenged Shah to debate the allegations he raised in his recent press conferences on vote chori (vote theft), but received no substantive response. According to him, Shah neither addressed the questions nor produced evidence to counter the Opposition’s charge that the BJP and the Election Commission had colluded to manipulate voter rolls and influence elections. “I challenged him openly to debate me on every claim I made. There was no reply,” Gandhi said.
The clash unfolded on Wednesday when a routine debate on electoral reforms quickly escalated into a fierce personal and political showdown. Shah defended the government’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, arguing that the exercise was crucial for removing illegal immigrants from voter lists. Gandhi, however, pressed him to confront Opposition accusations of large-scale voter fraud, opaque electoral practices and institutional bias.
Tensions spiked when Gandhi demanded that Shah respond in a specific sequence to his questions — a suggestion the Home Minister sharply rejected. Shah reminded him that he had spent three decades in the legislature and would not allow the Opposition to dictate the structure of his speech. He urged Gandhi to “listen patiently,” insisting he would address all points but in the order he deemed appropriate. He then attacked the Gandhi–Nehru family, reviving claims about the “first instance of vote theft” dating back to Jawaharlal Nehru’s appointment as Prime Minister, and citing a court case about Sonia Gandhi allegedly voting before receiving Indian citizenship.
Opposition MPs walked out midway through Shah’s address, accusing him of resorting to personal attacks instead of answering policy questions. Gandhi later reiterated that Shah dodged every key issue — from transparent voter lists and EVM accountability to safeguards for the Chief Election Commissioner.
In a post on X, Gandhi described Shah’s performance in Parliament as “panicked” and “completely defensive,” asserting that the government had no credible defence against the Opposition's allegations. The confrontation has deepened political fault lines as the debate over electoral reforms moves into a more contentious and highly polarised phase.
