The BJP on Wednesday targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the Congress had opposed the exercise because it stood with “illegal voters”.
The Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission’s authority to conduct the SIR exercise, observing that it “advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”.
Reacting to the verdict, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said on X that the judgment had exposed Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party.
“It is clear that Rahul Gandhi and Congress opposed this all through because they stood with illegal infiltrators, not with Indian voters,” Bhandari alleged.
He also described the opposition to the electoral roll revision exercise as an “anti-national act” and questioned whether Gandhi would apologise for “defaming Indian democracy”.
The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the SIR exercise in Bihar. The petitioners had argued that the Election Commission lacked powers under Article 326 of the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and related rules to undertake such a large-scale revision.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi held that the SIR exercise satisfied constitutional requirements and proportionality standards.
“The process that may initially appear exclusionary can, through appropriate safeguards, be rendered constitutionally compliant. We are satisfied that the impugned SIR exercise meets requirements of proportionality,” the bench observed.
The court further said it could not be concluded that the Election Commission had acted beyond its statutory powers in carrying out the revision exercise.