NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday stepped up its attack on the INDIA bloc over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. It accused opposition parties of shifting positions and turning a constitutional exercise into what it called a “spectacle”, after the Samajwadi Party questioned the credibility of the Election Commission over the scale of voter deletions in Uttar Pradesh. BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said SIR is increasingly becoming “Yaksha prashna” for opposition parties making them unable to “speak openly or remain silent” on the issue.Referring to the Samajwadi Party and Congress, Trivedi said they are contradicting themselves on whether SIR was cutting or adding votes. He cited recent statements by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leaders to argue that the opposition’s stand had kept changing. “The issue of SIR appears to be turning into a real conundrum for the INDIA alliance. Their situation has become such that they can neither speak openly nor remain silent. Today, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said —just 12 days ago—that the Bharatiya Janata Party’s votes had been cut. A few days before that, the Congress party was saying that through SIR, opposition votes were being cut. Now today, they are saying that SIR is not meant to cut votes but to add votes.”He went on to say, “I request the INDIA alliance parties – Samajwadi Party and Congress – to clearly explain, according to them, whose votes are being cut and whose votes are being added,” adding that SIR was “a constitutional process being carried out with professional competence and on a completely technical basis”. Using a Hindi idiom, the BJP MP described the opposition’s position as inconsistent. “If I were to put it in one line: in a moment it is a ‘tola’, in another moment it is a ‘masha’; in a moment it is one thing, in the next it is something else,” he said, calling the issue a “Yaksha prashna” created by the opposition itself. He urged opposition parties to cooperate with the process “with seriousness and awareness”.The BJP’s remarks came after Akhilesh Yadav alleged that Uttar Pradesh BJP leaders had advance knowledge of how many voters would be excluded from the SIR draft electoral roll, raising questions about the poll panel’s neutrality. The draft roll, published on January 6, excluded 2.89 crore voters while retaining 12.55 crore out of 15.44 crore names listed earlier.Speaking in Lucknow, Yadav said he had been apprehensive about the removal of three crore voters, but claimed BJP leaders had publicly cited even higher figures before the draft was released. “If BJP leaders, a former party MP, and the chief minister are making such statements, then what is the credibility of the Election Commission?” he asked, according to PTI.The SP chief also questioned discrepancies between voter data used for assembly and panchayat elections and sought clarity on figures compiled by BLO. He said the party would demand answers from the Election Commission and expressed hope that “genuine voters will have their names added to the voter list” before the final roll is published on March 6.Yadav said party workers had been given draft complaint formats to flag alleged irregularities and reiterated his demand for linking voter information with Aadhaar, alleging misuse of fake identification during elections.
