Union Home Minister Amit Shah addresses a public meeting during the ‘Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy’ campaign in Hyderabad on Monday (November 2). | Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday alleged that the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise had identified around three crore ‘unaccounted voters’, whom he described as ‘illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh’, among the 13 crore names removed from electoral rolls. He asserted that all such infiltrators would be expelled from the country.Addressing a public meeting at MJ Market in Hyderabad’s Old City after a ‘Save democracy-Remove anarchy’ foot march, Mr.

Shah claimed that of the nearly 13 crore names deleted from voter lists during the SIR process, 4.25 crore voters were registered in two different locations, three crore were deceased, and another one crore were duplicate entries. He questioned if such names should continue to remain on the electoral rolls. “Do we need to remove infiltrators from the country’s voter lists or not?” he asked.The Home Minister accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of defending the alleged three crore ‘unaccounted’ voters. “No matter how hard Rahul Gandhi or Chief Minister A.

Revanth Reddy may try, the BJP is committed to driving every infiltrator out of the country,” he said.Mr. Shah alleged that the Congress and other Opposition parties were opposing the SIR exercise to protect ‘infiltrators from Bangladesh’, whom he described as their ‘vote bank’ and maintained that only genuine Indian citizens should be included in electoral rolls.Ridiculing Sunday’s joint rally of Opposition parties in New Delhi, Mr.

Shah described it as a ‘Save Infiltrators’ rally and urged BJP workers to counter what he termed ‘fear-mongering’ by the former on the SIR exercise through a door-to-door campaign.The Congress was determined to halt SIR while the BJP would continue to support it, he said. Mr.

Shah said the Centre was prepared to convene a special session of Parliament to discuss the issue and challenged Mr. Rahul Gandhi to participate in a debate.

He said the Congress leader was not allowing Parliament to function. Taking a swipe at Mr.

Gandhi, he remarked that while he might become Prime Minister in a ‘mock Parliament’, he would never attain the position in reality.Defending the BJP’s electoral record, the Union Minister noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had won the 2014, 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections without any SIR exercise. He also rejected allegations about Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), asking how the Congress had won elections in Telangana, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh if the machines were flawed.Turning his attention to Telangana, Mr.

Shah alleged that the Congress government had become an ‘ATM’ for the party through the so-called ‘RR tax’. He accused the State government of failing to implement its six election guarantees and predicted that voters would reject the party in the next election.Earlier, Mr.

Shah led a foot march from the Babu Jagjivan Ram statue near Nizam College in Fateh Maidan to the meeting venue. Flanked by senior Telangana BJP leaders, including State president N.

Ramchander Rao, Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy and Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar, he marched amid tight security and chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.

He had arrived by a special aircraft from Delhi and was received by the party leaders at Begumpet airport. From there he offered prayers at the Bhagyalakshmi temple at Charminar before the programme.

Published - November 02, 2026 07:28 pm IST