BJP Minister Blames Congress for Turning Routine Voter Roll Update into Political Issue

Union Minister Bhupender Yadav on Thursday accused the Congress and other opposition parties of creating confusion around the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He said SIR is a routine constitutional exercise authorized by Article 324 and the Representation of the People Act, aimed at deleting deceased, relocated or duplicate names and adding eligible voters. Yadav noted that the process has been carried out eight times since 1950 and no party has previously challenged it. He pointed out that a door‑to‑door verification covered about 7.89 crore voters in Bihar and draft rolls were sent to the Booth Level Agents of all parties. During a Supreme Court hearing, only two objections were formally raised out of 160,000 BLAs. The Congress, he said, claimed 89 lakh names were removed but failed to file the required Form‑7 objections. Yadav warned that turning a routine revision into a political issue harms democratic discourse and urged the opposition to use constitutional channels instead of rhetoric. He linked the criticism to a broader pattern where parties celebrate victories as triumphs for democracy yet blame the system when they lose, citing examples from Kerala and Bihar. The remarks were made at a press conference in the BJP office in Patna, attended by BJP state president Sanjay Saraogi and media coordinator Danish Iqbal. He also answered a query on Delhi’s air‑pollution, saying the government is halting construction, promoting work‑from‑home and implementing an integrated action plan for the NCR.

Context

The SIR is a periodic clean‑up of the electoral roll to ensure only eligible, living voters are listed. Accurate rolls prevent duplicate voting and help maintain public trust in elections, which is why the process is constitutionally mandated and rarely contested.