Lok Sabha Storms As HM Shah’s Sonia Gandhi Remark Triggers Fierce Row

The Lok Sabha witnessed a dramatic collapse of order on Wednesday as a tense debate on election reforms exploded into a full-scale confrontation.

The spark came from Home Minister Amit Shah’s pointed reference to a Delhi court notice issued to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi over allegations that her name appeared on Delhi’s electoral rolls three years before she became an Indian citizen in 1983.

HM Shah intervened in the House to assert that he merely cited an ongoing legal development. He emphasised that the court had indeed sought responses from Sonia Gandhi and the Delhi Police on a criminal revision petition questioning the authenticity of her voter registration.

“This is a factual development, not an accusation. The notice exists, and she must respond. Transparency in voter lists is exactly what the opposition claims to demand,” Shah said, his tone firm and deliberate.

The remark instantly sent Congress MPs into a frenzy. Party general secretary KC Venugopal invoked Rule 352, accusing the Home Minister of distorting facts and dragging a dismissed case into parliamentary debate deliberately.

He declared that the Rouse Avenue Court had thrown out the complaint earlier and challenged Shah to prove that Sonia Gandhi had ever voted before acquiring citizenship.

Venugopal called Shah’s intervention ‘misleading, defamatory, and a diversionary tactic.’

The Treasury benches retaliated sharply. BJP MPs countered that the opposition could not selectively invoke propriety when the debate itself centred on electoral integrity.

They insisted that the petition and the court’s notice constituted legitimate ground for discussion, especially when the Congress continued to allege that the government was engaging in ‘vote chori’ through the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.

Shah Rejects ‘Fake Narrative’ on SIR

HM Shah stood his ground, dismissing the uproar as political theatre. He argued that the opposition had built an artificial narrative around SIR despite it being a constitutional process led by an independent Election Commission.

He emphasised that electoral rolls underwent detailed revisions for decades under successive Congress governments without protest and asked why the same scrutiny had suddenly become intolerable.

As tempers escalated, Speaker Om Birla struggled to restore discipline, repeatedly urging members to return to the substance of the debate instead of trading barbs across the floor.

Earlier, Shah had expressed frustration with the opposition’s reluctance to engage meaningfully. He recalled that the first two days of the Winter Session were consumed by disorder, conveying what he described as ‘a conscious attempt to avoid debate’.

HM Shah reiterated that SIR was essential to protect the sanctity of elections and cited the process’s success in states like Bihar.

Despite multiple attempts to resume the discussion, the House remained locked in confrontation, underscoring the deepening tensions over electoral reforms and the political narratives surrounding them.

Also Read: Amit Shah Clashes With Rahul Gandhi; Warns ‘Parliament Won’t Follow Your Dictates’ In Fiery SIR Showdown