Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Hitting back at the Congress’s charge that more than 13 crore voters were simply deleted during the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the BJP has said the figure does not represent final deletions from the electoral rolls. Sharing a break-up of the 13 crore names struck off the draft rolls, BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the figure included deceased voters, those who shifted residences, or those who could not be traced.
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Citing Election Commission data, Trivedi said 2.8 crore people were dead, 6.3 crore had shifted, 1 crore were duplicate entries, and around 3 crore were not traceable. Taking a jibe at the Congress, Trivedi accused the party of seeking to shield fake voters.
13.3 CRORE NAMES UNDER SCRUTINY
“I would like to clearly ask Congress. Who do they want to benefit by giving voting rights to the absent, shifted, dead and duplicate voters without any investigation? Does the Congress want to benefit someone by doing this?” the veteran BJP leader said.
Trivedi’s remarks came amid dramatic scenes in central Delhi, where the Congress and other opposition parties held massive protests near the Election Commission (ECI), demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The controversy centres on the 13.3 crore names not included in the draft electoral rolls during the SIR exercise across 30 states and Union Territories.
The issue has come under renewed scrutiny following an Indian Express investigation. It revealed that concerns over the deletion and restoration of names were also being raised within the ECI itself by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
The report revealed that Sandhu and Joshi objected to various decisions of the ECI at least 14 times over the past 10 months.
It gave fresh ammunition to the Congress to link the findings to its wider ‘vote chori’ campaign against Gyanesh Kumar and the Modi government.
Last week, the Congress announced a month-long campaign against the ECI, saying its workers would reach out to the nearly 13 crore affected voters. It also demanded the immediate restoration of the 13.3 crore deleted voters.
WHAT HAS ELECTION COMMISSION SAID?
The Election Commission, however, has said the figure does not represent 13 crore final deletions. It said the final figure could be arrived at only after the processing of claims, objections, and appeals.
The BJP has said that several of those deleted from the rolls under the ‘absent, shifted, and others’ category could potentially return to voters’ lists by filling Form 6, which is used for fresh voter registrations.
Separately, the Election Commission has directed 20 states and UTs where SIR has been completed to run a special drive to enrol voters left out of the rolls, according to a report in Indian Express.
During the press conference on Tuesday, Trivedi played an old video and said several Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Sachin Pilot had spoken about voter duplication on multiple occasions. He questioned whether they were lying then or are lying now.
“Rahul Gandhi himself and many of his senior leaders have said that there is voter duplication at several places. So, we want to ask them. Were you right in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2021, or are you right today? The Congress should clarify whether it was telling the truth then or is telling the truth today,” the BJP MP said.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
