The politics over a media report claiming 'dissent' between members of Election Commission of India (ECI) on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls continued on Saturday despite the poll body issuing a clarification and announcing key changes to the drive.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said poll body's press note has exposed the Congress-led opposition that was trying to mislead people and manufacture lies to attack a constitutional body. The party stressed the opposition does not have a problem with the poll body when election results are delivered in their favour, citing the examples of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
But when results are not in favour of the opposition, they start questioning institutions that conduct the elections, the BJP said.
"Democracy cannot be respected selectively," BJP's national president Nitin Nabin said on X. "Wins and losses are an inherent part of democracy, but resorting to malicious propaganda to discredit respected constitutional institutions is deeply unfortunate."
"Those who have repeatedly undermined India’s democratic framework for political survival owe the nation an honest reckoning and a public apology," he added.
Congress targets EC despite clarification
However, the Congress said EC's press note did not deny The Indian Express report and was a 'defensive attempt' to 'downplay' the allegations. The party continued demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and said the entire INDIA bloc remains united over the matter.
"I strongly believe that the legal safeguards that are provided to the Election Commissioner, which were instituted by the BJP government to protect him no matter what he does, those safeguards need to be removed," Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra told reporters in Kerala's Malappuram.
"If anyone is committing illegal acts against the nation, against our Constitution, against India, they need to be tried for the criminal action they are involved in. This is treason and they need to be tried for it," she said.
The poll body, meanwhile, has clarified that decisions regarding the SIR were unanimously taken by its members. On Saturday, a meeting was also organised between Kumar, and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi during which many key steps were also taken for the ease of voters who have been issued notices under the SIR drive.
It also clarified that a letter sent by Sandhu and Joshi to the Cabinet Secretary was not on 'policy matters', but was related to an officer on deputation. Further, the poll body announced an extension of SIR deadlines in Delhi and Maharashtra.
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