Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to face questions on the alleged “vote chori” and accept the open debate challenge issued by Rahul Gandhi, accusing the BJP-led government of evading accountability.
In a post on X, Kharge said Modi had no answers to the allegations of electoral manipulation and should agree to Gandhi’s challenge to debate issues including the prime minister’s alleged “foreign connections”.
“PM Modi is parroting his flop line of ‘Dimaagi Naxal’! He has NO answer on Vote Chori and the Open Challenge by Rahul Gandhi to discuss how he mortgaged Indian interests to Foreign powers!” Kharge said.
He also questioned Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s claim that three crore voters were “ghuspaithiyas” (infiltrators), asking what the minister had done during his tenure to prevent illegal immigration.
Kharge said Shah should be held accountable for his alleged incompetence.
Raising questions over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Congress chief alleged that the Election Commission had made five U-turns on the exercise, including a complete change in Form 6.
He also questioned why the changes were made, claiming that fellow election commissioners had termed the move illegal.
Kharge further accused the government of avoiding Parliament, pointing out that the previous session had not been prorogued for 83 days even as preparations were under way for the next session and a special sitting was being sought.
Claiming that the Congress-led opposition's public impeachment move against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and its 'Vote Bachao' rally at Ramlila Maidan had rattled the BJP leadership, Kharge said Modi should face questions in an open debate.
“You don't come to Parliament. You have not done a SINGLE OPEN PRESS CONFERENCE; it's time you came for a DEBATE. Come forward, Face Questions. Tell the Nation why did you indulge in VOTE CHORI !!” he said.
On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi challenged Modi to an open debate on the prime minister's charge that the opposition was anti-national. He also questioned why Modi had not filed a defamation case against him over his allegations of the prime minister's “foreign connections”.
Gandhi had further accused Modi of occupying the prime minister's office with “foreign help”, renewing his demand for a debate after the prime minister accused the opposition of taking foreign assistance to destabilise the country.
(With inputs from PTI)