Union Home Minister Amit Shah led the government’s defence with a sharp critique of the Opposition. He alleged that rival parties were shielding illegal immigrants to preserve their vote banks and declared that infiltrators cannot be allowed to influence who becomes the country’s Prime Minister or Chief Minister. His comments set the tone for a fiery exchange that lasted through the day.

Shah said the ongoing revision of electoral rolls is designed to clean the system by removing duplicate entries and names of illegal immigrants. He acknowledged that duplicate registrations might sometimes stem from genuine errors but cautioned that overlooking them weakens the credibility of elections and opens the door to manipulation.

Taking a broader view of the issue, the Home Minister warned that demographic engineering cannot be allowed to fracture the nation again. He pointed to persistent infiltration along the 2,216 kilometre Bangladesh border and accused the Trinamool Congress and the Congress of practising what he called the politics of protecting infiltrators. Shah said voters would eventually respond to such actions at the polling booth.

Reiterating the government’s stance of detect, delete and deport, he underscored that illegal immigrants would not be normalised in electoral records. He added that the objective of the Special Intensive Revision exercise is not to single out any community but to reinforce the integrity of India’s democratic processes and ensure elections remain free and fair.