India, Dec. 11 -- Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the Opposition's dramatic walkout from the Lok Sabha over his reference to "ghuspathiye" (illegal immigrants) had exposed the "real agenda" behind its two-day attack on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He alleged that the Opposition was trying to protect an illegal-immigrant vote bank that SIR would remove from voter lists.

Shah's remarks came during a debate on election reforms. Although the Opposition remained seated as he accused Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi of historic instances of "vote chori," they walked out the moment he turned to illegal immigrants being included in voter rolls.

"The Opposition wants to normalise and formalis...