SRINAGAR: BJP national vice-president Ram Madhav on Tuesday accused the Congress and its general secretary Rahul Gandhi of undermining public confidence in India's electoral institutions by spreading what he called lies about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He described the exercise as a constitutional process to clean up voter lists.
Addressing a press conference in Jammu, Madhav alleged that the Congress, unable to defeat the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in elections, was trying to create anarchy and bring about a change of government outside the democratic process.
He accused the party of advocating regime change along the lines of Bangladesh and Nepal and trying to destabilise the country through allegations of electoral manipulation. “Congress has wrong intentions as they can’t face us electorally”.
“People of the country will never accept anarchists like the Congress, nor will they allow its nefarious designs to succeed,” he said.
Defending the SIR exercise, Madhav said it had been completed in several states but was yet to be conducted in Jammu and Kashmir and some other states.
“The SIR was a constitutional exercise and a cleaning process conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI),” he said, dismissing allegations of large-scale deletion of genuine voters' names as baseless.
He questioned the Congress's claim that 13 crore people had been removed from electoral rolls and asked why the party had not produced even one person whose name had allegedly been wrongly deleted.
Madhav said the revision was necessary to remove the names of deceased voters, those who had shifted residences and people registered at multiple locations.
“Every year, approximately 90 lakh to one crore people die in India. When electoral rolls are being cleaned up after two decades, the names of those who have died have to be removed,” he said.
He said Booth Level Officers (BLOs) visited households to verify voters' existence and residential details, adding that names were being deleted when voters had shifted or could not be traced. He also said the exercise would remove the names of illegal immigrants, including Rohingyas living in Jammu.
Defending the ECI, Madhav said it had submitted its response to the Supreme Court, explaining the procedure and facts relating to the SIR exercise.
Taking a dig at the Congress over its past electoral record, he referred to the Allahabad High Court judgment that set aside former prime minister Indira Gandhi's 1971 election from Rae Bareli over electoral malpractices. “Her response was the imposition of Emergency, which dealt a severe blow to Indian democracy.”
Referring to the 1987 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Madhav alleged that then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had manipulated the electoral process.
“After the manipulation in the electoral process, how the terror began here, you all know the story,” he said.
Madhav also accused the Congress of blaming electoral institutions for its defeats, citing its allegations against electronic voting machines (EVMs) and its 'vote chori' campaign.
“Congress had lost 56 Assembly elections and three Lok Sabha elections between 2014 and 2024,” he said.
Countering the demand for ballot papers, Madhav referred to municipal elections in which the Congress won only two of the 42 wards despite voting being conducted through ballot papers. “In MLC polls, where ballot papers are used, BJP secured 16 of 28 seats while Congress won only one.”
Defending Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Madhav said, “You won some elections. Did you win Kerala before that? Did you win Karnataka before that?”
“India's democratic system was respected globally,” he said, accusing the Congress of damaging the country's international reputation by questioning electoral institutions.
