Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday accused Rahul Gandhi of wanting to safeguard the votes of "infiltrators," according to The Times of India. The remark was aimed at the Congress leader's allegations of vote theft, the newspaper reported.
The exchange is the latest flashpoint between the two leaders over the accuracy of India's electoral rolls. Shah's attack came as the Congress pressed its demand that a controversial revision of voter lists be halted.
According to The Hindu, the Congress described the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) as unconstitutional and called for every voter removed from the rolls without proper cause to be reinstated. The party's position is that the deletions were carried out improperly.
Shah also took aim at the Congress's prospects, with the Deccan Chronicle reporting his claim that the party will not win elections until 2030. The Hindustan Times quoted him saying protests would accomplish nothing and that the Congress would not win polls even in "30 years."
Separately, The New Indian Express reported Shah's assertion that the NDA will form the government in Punjab, where he criticised the opposition and said demonstrations would not change outcomes.
The comments place the voter-roll dispute at the centre of the BJP-Congress confrontation, with each side framing the other's motives as suspect. The Congress has tied its complaint to the SIR process; Shah has tied his criticism to Rahul Gandhi's vote-theft charge.
What to watch next: whether the Congress escalates its demand over the SIR through legal or parliamentary channels, and how the Election Commission responds to the competing claims about deleted voters.
