Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 20 Aug: Uttarakhand BJP has accused Congress of turning the Special Summary Revision (SIR) process into a political issue for appeasement and vote bank politics. BJP’s State general secretary Tarun Bansal today stated that the allegation that BJP is filing fake objections is baseless, as the claims and the objections under SIR are examined strictly according to procedures laid down by election officials. Bansal reminded that in this respect the final decision is to be taken at the level of the election commission only.
The BJP State General Secretary stressed that SIR is not a political campaign but a constitutional process of revising electoral rolls, involving BLOs, EROs and booth-level agents of political parties, and that the Election Commission itself has described it as a participatory exercise.
Bansal stated that in case Congress has doubts about any objection, it should present facts before election officers instead of politicising the process. He questioned why Congress remains silent on double entries in voter lists, particularly in border districts where names appear in both Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. He said such cases need to be verified and corrected as part of the natural electoral process, since every voter should be registered only in the constituency of normal residence. He added that the reports from Haridwar, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal indicate a large number of instances of duplicate entries, which he insisted should be tested against documents and rules rather than political bias.
Bansal also accused Congress of creating confusion and exerting unethical pressure on the electoral officials, asking whether the party objects to the impartial process itself or to the scrutiny of suspicious entries. He pointed out that similar attempts to politicise voter roll revision have been made by Congress in West Bengal and Bihar, but vote bank politics cannot coexist with the sanctity of electoral rolls.
Bansal emphasised that the Election Commission provides clear mechanisms through Form-7 for deletion and Form-8 for correction, ensuring that wrong, transferred or deceased entries are rectified. He said BJP stands firmly for one person, one valid entry and a transparent voter list, which is essential for democracy. He asserted that the purity of electoral rolls is not about party interests but about the credibility of democratic institutions, and that the Congress must explain why it resists verification of double entries if it truly wants fair elections.
