When people rise, BJP backtracks: Kharge on revision of electoral rolls

With the support of the Election Commission, the master plan that the BJP had devised to deprive crores of people in Bihar of their voting rights now seems to be ensnaring the BJP itself, said Kharge

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP on Sunday of conspiring to deprive the people of Bihar of their voter rights through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and said the voters of the state would teach the saffron party a lesson for its attack on democracy and the Constitution.

He cited a new advertisement issued by the Election Commission (EC), urging the voters of Bihar to only fill a form under the SIR, and alleged that "when people rise, BJP backtracks".

"With the support of the Election Commission, the master plan that the BJP had devised to deprive crores of people in Bihar of their voting rights now seems to be ensnaring the BJP itself," Kharge alleged in a post in Hindi on X.

He said from the very first day, the Congress has been raising its voice against the SIR.

"Why are people who have been voting election after election being asked to show their documents for voting?  "Forcibly depriving the poor, weak, deprived, Dalits, oppressed and backward people of their voting rights is the conspiracy of the BJP-RSS," he alleged.

The Congress chief claimed that nearly eight crore people will suffer because of the SIR.

"The responsibility to correct the voter list lies with the EC, not the public.

"When the pressure from the opposition, the public and civil society increased, the Election Commission hurriedly published these advertisements today, which state that now only a form needs to be filled and showing documents is not necessary," he claimed.

"This is part of the BJP's tactic to mislead and confuse the public. The truth is that the BJP has decided it will crush democracy at all costs. But when faced with public opposition, it cleverly takes a step back," the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha alleged.

Noting that Bihar is the birthplace of democracy, Kharge said the people of the state will surely respond to the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) attack on democracy and the Constitution in the upcoming Assembly election.