🔴 By | Arvind Jadhav
New Delhi: The political confrontation over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has intensified, with the INDIA bloc stepping up its protests in Delhi. Opposition leaders led by Rahul Gandhi marched towards the Election Commission on October 6, demanding an end to the SIR exercise and raising questions over the deletion of voters from electoral rolls.
The protest, which began with opposition MPs marching from the Parliament complex, was stopped by Delhi Police before the leaders could reach the Election Commission office. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several other opposition leaders staged a sit-in after being stopped. Police later detained several protesters before releasing them.
🟡 Rahul Gandhi Targets Chief Election Commissioner
Rahul Gandhi has continued to directly target Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the SIR exercise. During the protest, he demanded greater transparency in the electoral-roll revision process and reiterated his call for the CEC to resign.
The INDIA bloc has alleged that the SIR process could result in genuine voters being excluded from electoral rolls. Opposition parties are particularly questioning the procedure followed for verification, deletion and re-enrolment of voters.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has described the campaign as a fight to protect democracy and electoral rights. The opposition has demanded that voters whose names have been removed should be given adequate opportunity to establish their eligibility and get their names restored.
🟡 Election Commission Rejects Opposition Claims
The Election Commission has rejected allegations that the SIR process is being conducted arbitrarily. The Commission has maintained that the exercise is aimed at ensuring clean and accurate electoral rolls by identifying and removing ineligible, duplicate and deceased voters while protecting the rights of genuine electors.
The Commission also issued a clarification following the October 6 protest, stating that the opposition delegation had sought a meeting and that the Commission was prepared to meet the leaders at its office according to established procedure. The opposition, however, wanted the meeting at a location in the Parliament complex.
The controversy has also intensified over reports that a large number of names were excluded from draft electoral rolls during the SIR exercise. The Election Commission has subsequently directed officials to conduct special drives to facilitate the re-enrolment of eligible voters whose names were left out.
🟡 BJP Hits Back at INDIA Bloc
The BJP has strongly criticised the opposition campaign, accusing the Congress and its allies of politicising the electoral-roll revision process.
The BJP argues that the SIR is necessary to identify bogus, duplicate and otherwise ineligible voters and that political parties should not oppose efforts to maintain accurate electoral rolls. The party has also accused the Congress of blaming the Election Commission for its electoral setbacks instead of examining its own political strategy.
The opposition, however, maintains that cleaning electoral rolls cannot come at the cost of genuine voters losing their constitutional right to vote.
🟡 Protest Continues
The INDIA bloc has announced further protests against the SIR process, keeping pressure on the Election Commission and the central government.
The dispute is now moving beyond a routine electoral-roll revision debate and has become a major political confrontation over voter rights, electoral transparency and the independence of the Election Commission.
With both sides refusing to back down, the SIR controversy is expected to remain a major political issue in the coming weeks.
