Home minister Amit Shah on Thursday invoked Jawaharlal Nehru in the Lok Sabha to defend the Delhi services bill that gives the Centre control over bureaucrats in the capital state and went on to use the passage of the legislation to launch a virtual election campaign against the Opposition’s INDIA coalition.

The Lok Sabha passed the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill through a voice vote after an acrimonious debate in which the Treasury and Opposition benches launched attacks against each other.

The lone Aam Aadmi Party MP in the Lok Sabha, Sushil Kumar Rinku, rushed to the Well of the House and tore the bill during its passage and hurled it towards the Speaker’s Chair. Rinku was suspended for the remainder of the session.

Shah aggressively accused the Opposition of suspending their protest over the Manipur situation and participating in the debate on the Delhi bill only to ensure that the AAP remained in the INDIA group. The Lok Sabha debated the Delhi bill without any Opposition protest over Manipur.

“The Opposition’s priority is to save their alliance. They are not worried about Manipur,” Shah said, questioning why the Opposition did not participate in the debate over other bills but was present for the bill concerning the AAP. “Whatever alliance you form, no power can stop Narendra Modi from becoming Prime Minister again in 2024,” he added, amid loud applause from BJP parliamentarians.

The Opposition hit back hard, terming the Delhi bill an assault on cooperative federalism while accusing the BJP of using the CBI, ED and the income tax department as alliance partners against non-BJP states and asserting that the INDIA coalition would be in the Treasury benches in 2024.

Shah accused the AAP government of opposing the Delhi services bill to hide its corruption and claimed that despite the Opposition parties backing chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, he would not remain in INDIA.

Turning the House debate into a full-fledged campaign for next year’s Lok Sabha polls, Shah accused the Opposition of joining hands against Modi only with selfish motives. He sought to play on the rivalries between the Opposition parties in some states like the Trinamul Congress and the CPM-Congress in Bengal, and the Left and the Congress in Kerala.

Moving the bill for passage, Shah said the Constitution empowered the Lok Sabha to make laws for Delhi. He defended the government’s move, underlining that even the founding fathers like Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, C. Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad and B.R. Ambedkar were against the idea of Delhi getting the status of a full state.

Congress House leader Adhir Chowdhury quipped: “Amit Shah repeatedly praised Nehru and the Congress party. I thought to myself, what am I seeing? Is this day or night?” Shah clarified that he was only quoting Nehru.

“When you need, you take the help of former PM Jawaharlal Nehru. If you had actually taken the help of Nehru, the country would not have witnessed Manipur and Haryana,” Adhir said.