Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy on Tuesday said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was a process undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and had nothing to do with the BJP or any political party, while alleging that the Congress’s campaign against it “lacked substance”.
Addressing a press conference in Mysuru, Mr. Narayanaswamy said special revisions of electoral rolls were carried out periodically, usually once every 15 to 20 years, to remove names that were no longer eligible to remain on the rolls.
Names appearing at more than one place and those of deceased persons still figuring in the electoral rolls would also be deleted, he said, adding that this was the purpose of the exercise.
Targeting the Congress, Mr. Narayanaswamy asked whether the names of Bangladeshis, Pakistanis or Sri Lankans, if they were members of the Congress and registered as voters, should be allowed to remain on the electoral rolls.
Reacting to the Congress’s allegations of “vote theft”, he asked whether such malpractice had taken place when the Congress won 136 seats in Karnataka in the last Assembly elections. He also questioned whether “vote theft” had occurred during elections in Telangana, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala.
Referring to West Bengal, Mr. Narayanaswamy alleged that the people of the State had rejected the Congress. “When you are not in a position to win even a single seat and people do not vote for you, you remember vote theft,” he said.
Referring to the BJP’s performance in the last three Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Narayanaswamy said the party won 282 seats in 2014 and 303 seats in 2019, when Gyanesh Kumar, the present Chief Election Commissioner, was not in the ECI. The BJP’s tally fell to 240 seats in 2024, after Mr. Kumar joined the poll panel, he said. “Haven’t the Congress leaders noticed this?” he asked.
He alleged that the Congress had launched its campaign against SIR because the removal of ineligible or bogus voters would affect the party’s political prospects.
Taking a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Mr. Narayanaswamy alleged that the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha was following Abhijeet Dipke of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP).
“Mr. Gandhi is not following Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi or Indira Gandhi, but is following Mr. Dipke of the CJP. This is the irony of politics in the country,” he said.
