The Congress has intensified its attack on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging a “conspiracy” involving Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to deprive Indians of their constitutional right to vote.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed that nearly 10 crore people underwent SIR across six states, where around 1,600 foreign nationals were reportedly detected and deleted from electoral rolls. Citing Karnataka, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Kerala, Goa and Mizoram, Ramesh questioned the effectiveness of the exercise and alleged that its stated objective of detecting infiltrators did not justify the scale of the revision.
The Congress has reiterated three demands: Gyanesh Kumar must resign, SIR must be suspended, and the ECINET portal must be revamped.
The Election Commission has defended SIR before the Supreme Court, maintaining that the exercise is legally authorised and follows established statutory procedures. It has also rejected allegations that Form 6, used for voter registration, was amended.
With questions over the exercise and reports of internal differences among election commissioners, the controversy surrounding SIR continues to intensify.
Watch the full report for the latest developments in the Congress–Election Commission face-off.