Union Minister Kiren Rijiju challenges Congress over electoral rolls and past poll defeats

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju has challenged the Congress party to answer five basic questions regarding its electoral defeats and its opposition to the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. Mr. Rijiju accused the opposition party and outside forces of trying to destroy the Constitution and Indian democracy.

Key Questions

Writing on X, the Minister asked how the Congress won only 44 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when election commissioners were appointed by its own government. He also referred to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to ask how the party suffered a third consecutive defeat when Gyanesh Kumar, the current Chief Election Commissioner, was not heading the poll panel at that time. Records show Mr. Kumar assumed office as an Election Commissioner on March 15, 2024, and became Chief Election Commissioner on February 19, 2025. Mr. Rijiju further asked if current Congress chief ministers would resign and apologise for forming governments between 2014 and 2026.

Voter List Revision

Defending the special intensive revision exercise, the Minister asked whether names of illegal immigrants, dead voters, shifted residents, and duplicate entries should be removed from voter lists or not. He also questioned if past intensive revisions carried out during multiple periods between 1952 and 2004 were illegal. These past exercises span across the years 1952-56, 1958-61, 1965-66, 1983-84, 1987-88, 1993, 1995, and 2002-2004.

Context

These remarks arrive during a political and legal debate over electoral roll revisions and the functioning of the poll panel. The Election Commission recently defended its position in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on October 26, stating that orders regarding the revision were approved unanimously by all three members of the panel rather than by the Chief Election Commissioner alone.