Rahul Gandhi has challenged PM Modi to an open debate regarding the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, while Amit Shah slammed the Opposition's protest campaign, calling it an attempt to protect infiltrators.
Political Standoff Over Electoral Roll Revision
The political confrontation over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls intensified on Friday, with Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi renewing his challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an open debate and asking Union Home Minister Amit Shah to convince him to accept it, while Shah hit back at the Opposition's campaign, calling its 'Vote Bachao' yatra a 'Ghuspatiya Bachao Yatra'. The face-off comes amid growing Opposition protests against the electoral roll revision exercise and fresh instructions issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide another opportunity to voters marked under the Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate (ASDD) category to get their names included in the final electoral rolls in seven states and Union Territories.
In a post shared on X, Rahul Gandhi directly addressed the Union Home Minister, a day after Shah challenged him to discuss the SIR issue in Parliament and said the government was ready to convene a special session if the Congress formally requested it. "Amit Shah ji, don't confuse Modi ji. Just convince him to have an open debate with me. Any platform, any time. Don't be afraid," Gandhi said. Gandhi had earlier challenged the Prime Minister to an open debate, saying he was ready to participate on any platform and at any time. The exchange followed his social media poll asking young Indians whether they wanted to see a debate between him and PM Modi.
Shah, however, had challenged Gandhi to take up the issue in Parliament, questioning the substance of the Opposition's allegations. "If you (Rahul Gandhi) wish to engage in a responsible discussion, if your concerns hold truth, substance, and logic, then come and discuss them inside Parliament. Let's face each other head-on! But you won't be able to handle the answers; as always, you will just run away," Shah had said at a rally in Karnal, Haryana, as part of the BJP's 'Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy' campaign.
Amit Shah Sharpens Attack on Opposition
On Friday, Shah sharpened the BJP's attack on the Opposition, describing its protests against SIR as a campaign to protect infiltrators. "Rahul baba's 'Vote Bachao' yatra is more like a 'Ghuspatiya Bachao Yatra'! Should the infiltrators be driven out of this 'Devbhoomi' and out of India, or not? Rahul-ji, your narrative—this false narrative--is something the people of India cannot digest," Shah said. He also accused Congress of pursuing appeasement politics, opposing the construction of the Ram Mandir and encouraging the influx of infiltrators. Shah defended the BJP's record in Uttarakhand, alleging that Congress had left the state dependent on a "money-order economy" and migration.
Election Commission Issues Fresh Instructions
Amid the sparring, the EC on Friday issued fresh instructions amid the continuing row over the revision exercise. In an order to the Chief Electoral Officers of Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Telangana and Nagaland, the poll body said voters marked under the ASDD category whose enumeration forms were not received would get another opportunity to seek inclusion in the final electoral rolls. Under the instructions, booth-wise lists of such voters will be displayed at polling stations, Panchayat Bhawans, Urban Local Body offices and Block Development Officer offices. The lists will also be uploaded on the respective Chief Electoral Officers' websites.
The Commission has directed District Election Officers and Electoral Registration Officers to contact affected voters through physical delivery, WhatsApp, email and SMS. Booth Level Officers, in coordination with Booth Level Agents appointed by political parties, will also conduct house-to-house visits and contact voters directly. Electors who have shifted within the state can submit their enumeration forms with details of their new address and valid address proof. Homeless persons without address proof can also submit forms, with a field verification report by the Booth Level Officer serving as proof of residence. All applications will be verified by Electoral Registration Officers under Rule 21(1) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
Congress Claims Vindication
Meanwhile, Congress swiftly claimed vindication. General secretary Jairam Ramesh said the order was an admission of error. “Better late than never, this is an acknowledgement that names were wrongly removed from the voter list under the pretext of the ASDD category, depriving people of their voting rights,” he said on X. Accusing the EC of “scrambling to rectify its mistakes,” Ramesh said the process had put the voting rights of “over 130 million Indians at risk.”
Targeting the “PM-HM duo,” he said, “Their game is up. SIR is nothing but a new form of vote theft. And now that the theft has been caught, the Election Commission and the PM-HM duo are making every possible effort to cover up their misdeeds.” He repeated two demands: “Gyanesh Kumar must be removed from his post” and “there must be an immediate halt to SIR.”
Controversy in Uttar Pradesh
The BJP's defence of SIR also played out in Uttar Pradesh, where Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav accused the ruling party of attempting to manipulate electoral rolls and deprive people of their voting rights. Addressing a press conference, Yadav alleged that similar practices had been used in West Bengal, where voters' names were removed and central security forces deployed to influence the election. "The Bharatiya Janata Party will be forever defeated in UP. People from various states, several political parties, and especially the Opposition, raised questions about the SIR process, but the Election Commission had no answers," he said.
Yadav alleged that attempts were made to remove voters' names in Uttar Pradesh through Form 7 and claimed that Samajwadi Party workers had intervened to stop what he described as fraudulent practices. He also questioned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's claim that 1.27 crore Hindu votes had been deleted from the electoral rolls, asking how the Chief Minister had access to such information. "When the Union Home Minister visited, the Chief Minister appealed to Bharatiya Janata Party workers to collectively ensure that 2 crore names are added to the electoral rolls. This is because he knows that 1.27 crore of their votes have been removed," Yadav said, adding that this amounted to approximately 31,000 votes in each Assembly constituency.
BJP Rejects Allegations
The BJP rejected the allegations, accusing the Opposition of questioning constitutional institutions whenever it loses elections. Responding to Yadav's remarks, Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Manoj Kumar Pandey said allegations against the Election Commission were unfair and asked whether Opposition victories in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Keralam should also be attributed to electoral revision. "What a mockery of democracy! It is a mockery of the Constitution. When you win, you celebrate and distribute sweets; but when you lose two states, you attack constitutional bodies?" Pandey said. He added that political parties must respect the people's mandate and questioned whether deceased persons and those who had shifted to another state should continue to remain registered at their previous addresses.
BJP Minister Danish Azad Ansari accused the Samajwadi Party and Congress of making excuses for electoral defeats. "Elections are not won merely by levelling baseless allegations, peddling lies, and spreading confusion and hatred. The Samajwadi Party needs to understand this," he said, predicting that the BJP would return to power in Uttar Pradesh in the 2027 Assembly elections. Another BJP minister, Dara Singh Chauhan, dismissed Yadav's claims as allegations made in anticipation of the 2027 polls, while Dharampal Singh said the SIR process was being conducted according to established rules and that inquiries were underway wherever errors had been reported. "Since the defeat of the opposition in Uttar Pradesh in 2027 is certain, they are levelling such allegations in advance simply to shield themselves from that loss,” Chauhan said. He added that the BJP would form the government again “with a two-thirds majority” and “march towards Delhi once again in 2029.”
Minister Dharampal Singh defended the exercise, saying, “Everyone knows that the SIR is being conducted strictly according to established rules. Wherever mistakes are found in the SIR process, inquiries are underway.” On Akhilesh’s Hindu voters claim, he said the names being removed are of “those who got fake voter IDs made, individuals who have come from outside and have no legal basis to reside here.”
Opposition Protests Continue
Meanwhile, in Karnataka, BJP MP Tejaswi Surya accused Congress of attempting to undermine public faith in constitutional institutions through its criticism of the SIR process. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a BJP protest in Mangaluru, he alleged that the Opposition wanted duplicate and bogus voters to remain on electoral rolls. "Congress party and Rahul Gandhi in particular are making desperate attempts to weaken the faith of our people in the constitutional institutions. They are deliberately carrying out propaganda against the Election Commission, the Supreme Court, and other constitutional institutions," Surya said. He also claimed that citizens had submitted complaints about people being listed as voters at addresses where they did not reside.
Other Opposition leaders also questioned the BJP's campaign and the functioning of the Election Commission. MNS chief Raj Thackeray took a swipe at the BJP’s campaign. “This is perhaps the only instance in the world where a ruling party stages a protest against the opposition,” he said, citing the Gokul cooperative dairy elections in Maharashtra. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh questioned the impartiality of the Election Commission and raised concerns over electoral rolls and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), saying the party's fight was about protecting voters' rights. "Our battle is not about election outcomes; our fight is about our rights. It is my constitutional right that my vote is registered in the voter list. Whose responsibility is that? The Election Commission's," Singh said.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot also questioned the functioning of the Election Commission and backed Rahul Gandhi's allegations, saying the Opposition had the right to seek answers from democratic institutions. “We have full faith in the Supreme Court, but we are well within our rights to raise questions and seek answers. Unfortunately, all the actions taken by Gyanesh Kumar-ji have been illegal and unconstitutional," he said. The confrontation is also playing out on the streets. On Thursday, former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and other INDIA bloc leaders protested at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park, demanding that SIR be scrapped and CEC Gyanesh Kumar resign. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has announced a protest against SIR in Kochi on November 7.
The matter has also reached the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant sought responses from the Centre and the EC on a plea by RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha and lawyer Arun Kumar Agrawal. The plea challenges Section 16 of the 2023 Act, which bars civil and criminal proceedings against the CEC and Election Commissioners for acts done in official duty. With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls due in 2027, and the Samajwadi Party set to release its “Jan-Man Manifesto” on November 26, the SIR row shows no sign of cooling. (ANI)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianetnews Editorial staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
