Guwahati: The Assam Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday threw its weight behind the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, asserting its crucial role in identifying and removing illegal voters from the lists. This endorsement comes amidst vocal protests from opposition parties regarding the revision process.
The state unit of the saffron party firmly maintained that a similar exercise is urgently required in Assam to weed out illegal voters allegedly incorporated into the electoral rolls during the Congress’s tenure. Rupam Goswami, convenor of the Assam BJP’s state media department, expressed the party’s full support for the SIR, extending gratitude to the Election Commission for initiating what he termed a “crucial process.”
Goswami claimed that during the voter data collection in Bihar, the Election Commission uncovered a significant number of foreign nationals from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar. He alleged that “most of these people are illegal migrants working as labourers, and over the years, they have allegedly managed to include their names in the voter list under political patronage.” He further highlighted that such SIRs have been conducted across various parts of the country previously, including Bihar in 2003, emphasizing that the process helps delete illegal entries, add eligible voters, and ultimately strengthens the nation’s democratic fabric at the constituency level.
The BJP spokesperson sharply criticised the Congress for its opposition to the current revision. Accusing the Congress of maintaining “double standards,” Goswami pointed out that in 2022, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala had filed a case in the Supreme Court arguing against the linking of Aadhaar with voter ID. Yet, he noted, the same party is now demanding that Aadhaar be accepted as a valid document for voter enrolment.
Goswami further alleged that the Congress’s apprehension stems from the fear of losing its vote bank, having “relied on illegal Bangladeshi Muslim votes in past elections.” He contrasted this with the Congress’s past actions in Assam, where he claimed they “went so far as to label lakhs of Gorkhas and indigenous communities as ‘D voters’ and suspended their voting rights.” He asserted that the current BJP government has rectified this by removing the ‘D-voter’ tag and restoring the voting rights of genuine Indian citizens. Given this backdrop, he reiterated the “greater urgency” for a Special Intensive Revision in Assam to identify those illegally included in the voter list by the Congress for “vote bank politics.”
Meanwhile, the Assam Congress had on Sunday accused the BJP of conspiring to delete the names of opposition supporters from the electoral rolls in Assam under the guise of voter list revision, ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections. They also questioned the Election Commission’s neutrality, branding it a “puppet” of the ruling party.
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