Rajasthan BJP President Defends Voter List Review Amid Opposition Criticism
Rajasthan BJP chief Madan Rathore defends the voter list review process, calling it standard practice despite opposition claims.
Jaipur, October 30 (Daily Kiran) : Rajasthan’s BJP President and Rajya Sabha member, Madan Rathore, has come to the defense of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of the voter list, asserting that this procedure is neither new to India nor unprecedented globally.
Responding to opposition concerns regarding alleged irregularities in the SIR process, Rathore pointed out that the Congress party had implemented this very procedure ten times during its governance. He criticized Congress for now questioning the process and claiming it poses a threat to democracy.
Rathore accused Congress of spreading misinformation to create confusion among the public. He suggested that the party exhibits an emergency-like mentality in its political approach. Furthermore, he alleged that Congress is utilizing foreign toolkits to advance its political agenda, stating that such tactics are detrimental to both the public interest and democracy.
The BJP leader also targeted former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s recent comments linking the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to democracy. Rathore claimed that misleading statements are being made to appease Congress leadership. He urged Congress to remember the emergency declared by Indira Gandhi before rallying for their “Save India” campaign, highlighting how that era involved censorship of newspapers, suspension of civil rights, and imprisonment of numerous political leaders.
Rathore emphasized that the BJP’s “Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy” campaign aims to raise public awareness about Congress’s double standards regarding democratic values. He questioned Congress’s allegations that approximately 130 million voters’ names were removed from the voter list during the SIR process.
Citing data, he asserted that among those removed, 28 million voters had died, 63 million had changed their residence, nearly 10 million were registered in multiple locations, and 30 million could not be located. Rathore clarified that those whose whereabouts are unknown were only marked for verification and not automatically removed from the list.
He challenged Congress to explain if it prefers to keep the names of deceased or relocated individuals on the voter list, risking misuse. Rathore concluded by stating that Congress’s portrayal of the voter list review as a threat to democracy contradicts the necessity of maintaining an accurate and updated voter registry for a healthy democratic system.
