BJP’s Voter ID Charge on Pawan Khera Reveals EC's Roll Errors
BJP targets Pawan Khera over dual voter IDs; Congress points to EC’s lapses.
Congress leader Pawan Khera turned the tables on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after its IT department head, Amit Malviya, accused him of possessing two active Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) in Delhi. Khera claimed that the BJP’s attempt to target him and Congress has instead exposed significant lapses by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in maintaining the integrity of electoral rolls.
Malviya, in a post on X, alleged that Khera, a close associate of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, holds two active voter IDs in the Jangpura and New Delhi constituencies, implying potential electoral misconduct. He further claimed that Gandhi’s campaign against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar, labeled as “vote chori” (vote theft), was an effort to conceal Congress’s own electoral malpractices. Malviya also referenced unverified claims about Sonia Gandhi’s enrollment on voter lists before her Indian citizenship.
In response, Khera told PTI Videos that he was unaware of the second EPIC, having applied to remove it in 2016-17 after relocating. He blamed the ECI for failing to update the rolls, noting that his name remained on the New Delhi constituency list despite four elections and revisions since 2016. Khera demanded CCTV footage to investigate whether his vote was misused, suggesting it may have benefited the BJP. In a subsequent X post, he accused Malviya of selective outrage, ignoring thousands of similar dual-registration cases raised by Congress since Gandhi’s August 7 press conference.
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Khera argued that Malviya’s “stunt” inadvertently conceded the ECI’s failure to maintain electoral roll integrity, reinforcing Congress’s allegations of systemic issues. He criticized Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Gupta, urging him to choose allies carefully after BJP leaders, including Anurag Thakur, similarly implicated the ECI. At a BJP press conference, spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari doubled down, labeling Khera and Gandhi as “thieves” creating noise to distract from their own alleged misconduct.
The controversy, set against the backdrop of Bihar’s upcoming assembly elections and the ongoing SIR, underscores a heated political battle over electoral integrity. Congress has accused the ECI of enabling voter list errors, while the BJP counters that the opposition is deflecting from its own violations. The dispute highlights broader concerns about the ECI’s processes, with Khera’s case amplifying calls for transparency and accountability in India’s electoral system.
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