NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday slammed Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for raising the issue of voter irregularities ahead of the INDIA bloc’s Delhi Chalo march and challenged them to discuss the issue during a special session of Parliament.While addressing a gathering in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, Shah highlighted the Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral victories in states like Haryana, Maharashtra and Bihar, and said that the opposition had realised that it could not win elections.“In Haryana, the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the government after securing the highest number of seats. In Maharashtra, the NDA formed the government with the largest share of seats. In Bihar, for the first time, a chief minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party took office. In Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the government after three decades. In Puducherry, the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the government once again. In Assam, we achieved a hat-trick by winning 100 seats, and in Bengal, we completely wiped out Mamata Didi,” Shah said.“After the events in Bengal, they have realised that they simply cannot win elections,” he added.The Union home minister said that “Rahul Baba” and Akhilesh were cut from different cloth and accused them of “blaming the umpire” instead of accepting defeat.“Naturally, when a team loses a match or a game, they should sit down and practise more – that is what is expected, isn’t it? But ‘Rahul Baba’ is cut from a different cloth. The same goes for Akhilesh and others in the ‘INDIA’ alliance who are with him. Instead of accepting defeat, they began accusing the umpire of cheating, claiming that votes were stolen,” Shah said.He further said that the opposition had no intention of raising the issue in Parliament and accused it of refusing to let the House function.“Rahul Baba, I challenge both you and Akhilesh Yadav right here and now: the Bharatiya Janata Party is fully prepared to discuss this in Parliament. We have nothing to hide. Let us convene a special session of Parliament – but they have no intention of speaking there. They refuse to let Parliament function; instead, they just create a ruckus,” Shah said.
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This comes as the opposition is gearing up to hold a march at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on November 1.Rahul Gandhi reiterated that “this is not multiple protests” but “one protest”, with the opposition standing together to defend the Constitution.“By consensus, we have decided to postpone today’s programme to tomorrow because of rain. We felt that it would be uncomfortable for seniors to sit in the rain, and we would do the exact same programme tomorrow,” Rahul said at a joint press conference with INDIA bloc leaders outside Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence at 10, Rajaji Marg.