BJP Accuses Congress Of Changing Stand On Voter Roll Revision

The BJP on Tuesday accused the Congress of changing its position on electoral roll revision and alleged that the opposition party was opposing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process for political reasons. Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, party spokesperson Siddharth Yadav said Congress leaders had previously demanded the removal of duplicate, dead and ineligible names from voter lists.

Yadav cited examples from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Kerala to support the BJP's claim that Congress leaders had earlier sought changes to electoral rolls. In Andhra Pradesh, he said Congress leaders had in 2018 alleged that around 50 lakh names were duplicates and demanded their removal. Yadav claimed that 44.28 lakh names were subsequently removed during an SIR in 2026.

Referring to Telangana, Yadav said a Congress leader had earlier claimed that around 70 lakh names were duplicate or incorrect. He also cited remarks by Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi, played during the press conference, regarding duplicate and missing voters. Yadav claimed that around 73.39 lakh names were later removed from the state's electoral rolls during the SIR. He similarly cited figures for Rajasthan, where he said around 42 lakh duplicate names had been alleged in 2018 and around 41.85 lakh names were subsequently removed during the SIR.

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Yadav also referred to Kerala, where he said the Congress had previously alleged that 4.34 lakh names were duplicates and sought their removal before elections. He claimed that an SIR subsequently identified and removed 8.57 lakh duplicate names. According to Yadav, the Congress later described the exercise positively after winning the Kerala election, which he cited as evidence of what he termed a changing political position on electoral roll revision.

The BJP spokesperson also cited examples from Bihar, Delhi and Maharashtra to question the Congress' objections to the current revision process. He claimed that an Election Commission survey in Bihar in 2013 had identified 76 lakh "ghost voters", dead voters and duplicate names, while an SIR conducted in 2025 resulted in 65 lakh names being removed. For Delhi, he claimed that around 13.58 lakh names were removed in 2013 and another 33 lakh during the recent SIR. In Maharashtra, he alleged that 71.76 lakh names were deleted and 74 lakh added in 2014 without an SIR, while around 39 lakh new names were added during the recent exercise.

Yadav accused the Congress of creating what he described as a false narrative around the electoral process and urged the opposition to introspect after election defeats rather than blame the system. He also questioned the Congress' proposed outreach to people whose names were removed from the rolls and criticised Rahul Gandhi over his earlier allegations concerning election commissioners. The BJP spokesperson described these positions as further examples of what he called a political "U-turn" on the issue of electoral roll revision.

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