Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday challenged Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav to debate the row over electoral rolls in a special session of Parliament.
His remarks came a day before the Congress is set to stage a “public impeachment” of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.
“‘I challenge you both right here and now: the Bharatiya Janata Party is fully prepared to discuss this in Parliament. We have nothing to hide. “But they have no intention of speaking there. They refuse to let Parliament function; instead, they just create a ruckus,” he added, speaking of the Opposition at large. For an actual impeachment, it has given notices that have been rejected, and it does not have the numbers for it anyway. He added, “Instead of accepting defeat, they began accusing the umpire of cheating, claiming that votes were stolen.
Because of rain in Delhi, as for the mock version, the party called the event off about two hours before it was to begin on Friday.
Let us convene a special session of Parliament,” Shah said at the Uttar Pradesh BJP state executive committee meeting in Lucknow. The Congress had planned to hold a “mock parliament” originally, which it later re-termed “public impeachment”. The sitting will now be held on Saturday, a day before the INDIA bloc’s rally at Ramlila Ground against the CEC and the SIR, with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge expected to move the “impeachment motion”. Shah, meanwhile, said, “[Rahul Gandhi] will never discuss the issue in Parliament but will create a nuisance on the street. Listing the BJP’s wins in Haryana, Maharashtra, Bihar, Delhi, Puducherry, Assam and West Bengal, Shah further said, “After the events in Bengal, they have realised that they simply cannot win elections. In Lucknow, Amit Shah said the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh stood firm like “Angad’s foot”, referring to a Ramayana tale, and said it would return for a third consecutive term with an overwhelming majority.
