Congress responded to Amit Shah's offer to convene a special Parliament session on SIR, saying that if he was serious about the proposal, he should first secure resignation of his "hatchet man", CEC Gyanesh Kumar, and suspend the exercise.Ramesh said 82 days had passed since the Monsoon Session of Parliament ended, but it had still not been formally closed. The Congress on Tuesday hit back at Home Minister Amit Shah over his offer to convene a special session of Parliament to discuss the SIR issue, news agency Press Trust of India reported.The party said Shah should first secure the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and suspend the SIR exercise if he was serious about the proposal.Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh also asked Shah to share the government's delimitation proposals with the Opposition in advance and convene an all-party meeting to discuss them.Ramesh said 82 days had passed since the Monsoon Session of Parliament ended, but it had still not been formally closed.
He alleged that this was because the home minister was considering calling a special session to pass delimitation Bills with what he described as a “super-tainted two-thirds majority” in the Lok Sabha.In a post on X, Ramesh said the contents of the Bills were not yet known, although he alleged that their intent was to save the BJP from an electoral setback in 2029. “Meanwhile, the self-styled Chanakya, the master of bluff, bombast and bluster says he is ready for a Special Session to discuss vote chori. Last year, when the combined Opposition wanted a debate on SIR he had refused, saying SIR was the prerogative of the Election Commission,” Ramesh said.“If the Home Minister is serious about a Special Session on vote chori, he should first secure the resignation of his hatchet man CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
He should also suspend SIR,” he said.Ramesh added that Shah should share his new delimitation proposals with the Opposition well in advance and asked why he had not convened an all-party meeting to discuss them in detail.His remarks came a day after Shah said the government was ready to convene a special session on the issue and challenged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to debate it in Parliament.Shah dismissed the INDIA bloc's rally in Delhi on Sunday as a “save infiltrator” rally. He asked how the Congress had formed governments in states, including Telangana, if electronic voting machines were faulty, and said Gandhi could become prime minister only in a mock Parliament.Leading the BJP's “Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy” march, Shah said: “He (Rahul) holds the Constitution in hand, but doesn't respect the Constitution.
Rahul ji, you don't allow Parliament to run. Be it EVMs, SIR, infiltrators, I challenge you from Hyderabad.
We are ready to convene a special session of Parliament. Come for debate.”Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would “shred Congress into pieces” if a Parliament session was held and accused the party of seeking attention through “anarchy”.He also alleged that the Congress was trying to stop the SIR exercise to protect “infiltrators from Bangladesh” on the electoral rolls, and asserted that the BJP would remove every infiltrator from the rolls.The exchange centred on Shah's offer of a special parliamentary session on SIR, with the Congress demanding the resignation of the chief election commissioner, suspension of the exercise and prior discussions on the government's delimitation proposals.- Ends