The Lok Sabha on Wednesday witnessed a tense face-off between Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi as discussions on electoral reforms quickly escalated into a verbal showdown. Shah defended the government’s special intensive revision, arguing it was essential to eliminate undocumented migrants from voter lists, while Rahul Gandhi challenged him to an open debate following his allegations of “vote theft.”

Congress MPs accused the Home Minister of avoiding direct questions raised during the two-day debate. Gaurav Gogoi claimed Shah “was simply reading from a prepared script” and ignored issues flagged by leaders such as Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Kalyan Banerjee and Supriya Sule. Gogoi also questioned Shah’s comments about “polluted” voter lists, asking why these concerns did not arise when the BJP was campaigning for a sweeping majority in the general elections.

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate criticised Shah’s remarks further, alleging that parts of his address sounded like “WhatsApp University material.” She questioned the outcomes of the SIR exercise in Bihar and claimed that the UPA government had expelled over 88,000 infiltrators between 2004 and 2014, compared to roughly 2,400 removals under the NDA in the past 11 years. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra added that someone with nothing to hide would not feel the need to offer such an extended explanation.

Tensions peaked when the Opposition staged a walkout during Shah’s speech, drawing sharp reactions from BJP leaders. Tejasvi Surya termed Rahul Gandhi’s decision to lead the walkout “utterly shameful,” arguing that the Opposition had pressed for a debate on SIR for weeks but walked out just when the Home Minister began addressing their queries. He accused Opposition parties of repeatedly spreading misinformation about SIR and EVMs to obstruct parliamentary proceedings.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma praised Shah’s speech on social media, saying it dismantled the Opposition’s “propaganda.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi also commended Shah for presenting “strong facts” on India’s electoral system while exposing what he called the Opposition’s falsehoods. Union minister Piyush Goyal defended the SIR initiative as an effort to make voter rolls more accurate and transparent. He said the Opposition’s walkout showed its discomfort with cleaning up the voter list and suggested that some parties relied more on “infiltrator votes” than public support.