'Outright lie': Congress slams Amit Shah for his 'vote chori' charge against Nehru

New Delhi, Dec 11 (PTI) The Congress on Thursday rebutted Home Minister Amit Shah's "vote chori" charge against Jawaharlal Nehru, saying the claim that he was made the prime minister despite Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel being the popular choice is a "lie" and a "figment of imagination".

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said party colleague Piyush Babele has "totally exposed" one of the home minister's "many lies" in the Lok Sabha and shared his video on X.

The Congress also shared Babele's video and said it exposes the "outright lie" of Shah.

Intervening in the debate on election reforms in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Shah cited three instances of alleged "vote chori" by Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

"So, 28 votes went to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and two were cast in favour of Jawaharlal Nehru. But Nehru ji ended up being the prime minister," he had said, prompting an uproar in the Opposition benches.

In the video shared by Ramesh and the Congress, Babele said the claim that Nehru was made PM despite Patel being the popular choice is a "figment of imagination" of the RSS.

"According to this lie, it is stated that in 1946, elections to Congress presidentship took place and Patel got more votes but despite Nehru getting less votes he was made Congress president and therefore went on to become the prime minister. The truth is that the election that had to take place in 1946 for Congress presidentship did not take place," Babele said.

"As they (BJP-RSS) say that voting took place, there was no such voting. This is a lie that has been spread. The president was made but the situation in the country was bad due to riots and law and order was disturbed and there was tension prevailing, Shimla parleys were taking place, Maulana Azad had been the Congress president and the situation was not there that elections to elect a party president take place," he said.

Babele said the Pradesh Congress Committees had sent their recommendations and a majority of them had spoken in favour of Patel but it must be remembered that in the election of the Congress president, the opinion of PCCs has no legal standing and no one can be made president on the basis of that.

"When Nehru and Patel had become Congress president earlier, it was not on the recommendation of PCCs. Mostly the recommendations used to be for Mahatma Gandhi to become party chief. It had become a tradition that whomsoever Mahatma Gandhi chooses becomes the president and that also holds true for 1946," he said.

"Sardar Patel had filed his nomination, another person had done so while Nehru had not even filed his nomination till the last day. When working committee met, it was decided that under the circumstances, Nehru should be made president and therefore Patel took back his nomination, Acharya Kriplani took back his nomination and with their agreement stamp was put on Nehru's name," he said.

Before this, Gandhi had repeatedly said that Nehru would be his successor, he added. PTI ASK KVK KVK