New Delhi, 29 September (H.S.): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national media co-convener Siddharth Yadav on Tuesday launched a strong attack on the Congress over the issue of electoral rolls and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists. Citing figures from previous years, Yadav accused the Congress of attempting to discredit constitutional institutions and demanded that the party apologise to the nation.

Yadav said the Congress had earlier called for the removal of duplicate and fraudulent names from electoral rolls but was now opposing the revision of voter lists. He alleged that the party’s position had changed despite its earlier demands for the cleansing of electoral rolls.

“The Congress has constructed a new narrative to conceal its political failures,” Yadav said. “The Congress’s political U-turn and its changing narrative are a direct manifestation of the politics of convenience.”

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, Yadav cited the example of Andhra Pradesh and said that in 2018, a Congress leader had claimed that there were nearly five million duplicate entries in the electoral rolls and had demanded their removal and a revision of the rolls. He said the Congress had adopted a similar position in Telangana as well. According to Yadav, the Congress had maintained at the time that failure to remove duplicate names would amount to a betrayal of democracy.

Yadav also cited Rajasthan, saying that on August 15, 2018, the Congress had alleged the presence of around 4.2 million duplicate names in the state and had demanded their removal. According to him, around 4.185 million names were subsequently deleted during the SIR process.

Referring to Kerala, Yadav said the Congress had alleged that there were approximately 434,000 duplicate names in the electoral rolls. He said a website was created over the issue and the matter was taken to the High Court. According to Yadav, a subsequent SIR exercise identified around 857,000 duplicate names, which were then removed.

The BJP leader said that after the special revision in Kerala, the Congress won the election and subsequently described the process as helpful and a good exercise. He said that, at the time, Congress leaders and the then state Home Minister had raised allegations concerning the inclusion of incorrect names in the electoral rolls.

Yadav also referred to Bihar. He said that in 2013, when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was in power at the Centre, the issue of around 7.6 million alleged “ghost voters” had been raised in the state. He claimed that around 6.5 million names were removed following the SIR process in 2025.

Yadav said the Congress was now opposing the very process that it had previously described as necessary for cleaning up electoral rolls and strengthening democracy. He alleged that the Congress’s position had changed over time in accordance with its political interests.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar