BJP counters Congress over SIR ‘deletions’, says 13 crore names only flagged for verification

The BJP on Sunday pushed back against Congress’ allegations over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, accusing the Opposition party of “fearmongering” and asserting that 13 crore voter names cited in the controversy were not actually deleted.

BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde shared an “explainer” video on X seeking to rebut the allegations surrounding the exercise and reject claims that the ruling party was involved in the process.

According to the BJP’s explanation, the 13 crore names were flagged for verification under categories including deceased, absent, permanently shifted and duplicate voters. The party said final action would be taken only after processing claims, objections and appeals.

The BJP’s break-up of the draft figures put the number of voters recorded as deceased at around 2.6 crore, those absent from their registered addresses at three crore, permanently shifted voters at 6.3 crore and duplicate entries at around one crore.

Tawde said the detailed information had been shared with around 20 lakh booth-level agents representing political parties.

The BJP also rejected allegations that the Election Commission had altered Form-6, which is used for inclusion of names in electoral rolls. It claimed that all three Election Commissioners were in agreement on the additional details incorporated into the form and that the changes had the Supreme Court’s approval.

On allegations of centralisation, the BJP said there had been no structural change in the electoral framework and that local election officials, including Electoral Registration Officers, remained responsible for handling voter requests at the local level.

Tawde accused Congress of attempting to create fear instead of presenting facts, while stressing that the stated objective of SIR was to ensure the inclusion of eligible voters rather than disenfranchise anyone.

The BJP further claimed that 2.3 crore new Gen-Z voters had been added since the SIR exercise began last year, taking the total number of Gen-Z voters to 17.3 crore.

Rejecting Opposition allegations of “vote chori”, the party maintained that the Election Commission had acted within its statutory powers and pointed to the Supreme Court’s rulings concerning SIR exercises in Bihar and West Bengal.