Fight over SIR deletions: BJP claims 2.8 crore voters were deceased; Cong questions 10.2 crore excluded names

New Delhi, Sep 27 (SocialNews.XYZ) The raging controversy over deletion of 13 crore voters in the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) turned into a fresh political showdown, with BJP and Congress sparring over the ‘reasoning and rationale’ behind voter roll deletions, with the latter accusing the poll panel of depriving genuine voters of their right to participate in the country’s largest democratic exercise.

BJP on Sunday justified the EC’s move, claiming that out of the 13 crore total electoral roll deletions, a whopping 2.8 crore names belong to the deceased, while Congress slammed it for not maintaining sanctity of the rolls despite being in power for a decade and also questioned, “where did the other 10.2 crore names go?”

Since the disclosure of over 13 crore deletions pan-India from the draft rolls of 30 states/union territories so far, Congress and opposition parties have upbraided the poll panel, accusing it of taking away the rights of voters.

The EC’s SIR drive, which began in June last year, has deleted 13 crore names from electoral rolls, with Delhi and Maharashtra registering the maximum deletions, showing a cut of 32.8 per cent and 21.1 per cent respectively.

While the ruling party and opposition argue over the EC's voter revision drive, the BJP, in a post, said that SIR has removed 2.8 crore names of deceased voters from the electoral rolls.

Further training guns at Congress, it asked, “The question is simple: Who benefitted from keeping these names on the voter list? Who wants names that could be misused for bogus voting?”

It further alleged that the INDIA bloc is creating a ruckus to disrupt the cleaning of electoral rolls, suggesting that the latter wants deceased people on the voter list, so as to manipulate it.

Congress MP Pawan Khera took note of the BJP’s clarification on EC’s SIR drive and posed direct questions about the ‘reasoning’ behind removing 10.2 crore voters from the list.

“13 crore voters have been removed under the SIR. The BJP says 2.8 crore were deceased voters. Fair enough. What about the remaining 10.2 crore?” he asked in a post on X.

The Congress leader also accused the ruling dispensation of "mismanagement" in the electoral rolls despite being in power for over a decade.

“If 2.8 crore dead people were still on the rolls, were the annual summary revisions since 2014 really that shoddy?” he asked.

“Is the BJP admitting that it has failed for years to maintain electoral rolls properly?” he also questioned.

Source: IANS