Congress blaming SIR for political failures should introspect Union minister Baghel

Rajkot, Nov 2 (PTI) Union Minister SP Singh Baghel on Monday accused the Congress of blaming the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls for its political failures, advising the opposition party to introspect and not create controversies.

    Addressing a press conference in Gujarat's Rajkot as part of the BJP's 'Loktantra Bachavo, Arajakta Hatavo' (Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy) campaign, Baghel emphasised that voter roll revisions have occurred regularly since 1952, and the recent purges had successfully identified millions of duplicate and deceased voters across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.

    The Election Commission had undertaken the SIR without violating its constitutional limits, he asserted, challenging the Opposition to provide evidence of eligible voters being wrongly removed from electoral rolls.

    "If the Opposition alleges that voters have been deprived of their right to vote, it should present evidence, supported by affidavits, showing which eligible voters' names have been wrongly removed," the BJP leader said.

    Baghel said that the SIR was not a new exercise and had been conducted several times since before the first Lok Sabha elections in 1952.

    He noted that the Congress had not questioned the constitutionality of the exercise when it was carried out under previous governments, but was now opposing the process for political reasons.

    Baghel said the electoral rolls must be periodically updated to remove the names of deceased persons, duplicate registrations and voters who permanently migrated elsewhere or are ineligible.

    "Purifying the electoral roll by verifying and removing the names of deceased, duplicate and migrated voters is essential for the credibility of democracy," he said.

    The Union Minister of State claimed that 25.47 lakh duplicate voters and 46.23 lakh deceased voters had been identified in Uttar Pradesh. In Maharashtra, the corresponding figures were 17.63 lakh and 34.81 lakh, and Gujarat had 3.81 lakh duplicate voters and 18 lakh deceased voters.

    He maintained that the exercise had been carried out through multiple levels of verification, including three rounds of door-to-door checks by booth-level officers (BLOs), and booth-level agents (BLAs) representing various political parties had also participated in the process.

    Baghel also linked the Congress's electoral performance in several states to its political standing rather than the SIR exercise.

    He said the party had been out of power for 59 years in Tamil Nadu, 49 years in West Bengal, 37 years in Uttar Pradesh, 36 years in Bihar, 33 years in Tripura, 30 years in Gujarat and 26 years in Odisha.

    "The reason for the Congress's political position in these states is not the SIR process; rather, the people have not chosen the party through their electoral mandate," he said, accusing it of attempting to divert attention from its failures by creating confusion over the revision exercise.

    Baghel further accused the Congress of questioning constitutional institutions and recalled the Emergency imposed in 1975, during which opposition leaders and workers were jailed.

    The Congress, which had curtailed democratic rights during the Emergency, was now speaking about protecting democracy and the Constitution, he said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)