Rahul Gandhi's phone-tapping claim a tactic to ensure parliament session washout: Chirag Paswan

Patna: Union minister Chirag Paswan on Saturday claimed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's phone-tapping allegation is a "tactic" to ensure that the upcoming Parliament session is a "washout".

The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president accused Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, of establishing a "pattern" of levelling charges, which the Congress MP does not "authenticate or validate".

"As the LoP, Rahul Gandhi is expected to speak and act with responsibility. But he always shoots and scoots. He has never cared to authenticate or validate any of the charges he has made," claimed Paswan, who was approached by journalists with queries about the former Congress president's latest charge.

The Hajipur MP trained his guns at Gandhi over the "vote chori" charge, pointing out that "not even one lakh people have come up to support his allegation that names of millions of voters have been deleted in the SIR (Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls)".

"The poor turnout at his rally in Delhi earlier this month proved that accusations made by him have not resonated with the people," Paswan claimed.

The LJP (Ram Vilas) president also made light of the claim of Gandhi, who has challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an "open debate" that the PM knew "I have evidence of his being controlled by foreign powers stored in my phone since it is tapped by his government".

The Union minister claimed, "It is a pattern that we have noticed over a period of time. They raise a bogey ahead of a Parliament session, create a ruckus inside the House and force a washout. The winter session is approaching, and they are taking recourse to a familiar tactic".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Mathrubhumi and is published from a syndicated feed.)