New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Pointing to Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar launching the state’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by filling out his own Enumeration Form, the BJP on Tuesday remarked that Congress leaders themselves “don’t take the party’s stand seriously”.

The response comes after Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that a joint letter, now signed by 23 political parties and one Independent MP, has been sent to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, regarding the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process and other election-related issues.

Talking to IANS, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said: “Today, the letter that the Opposition has written on SIR is not being taken seriously even by members of the Opposition themselves, because in Karnataka, Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar has been associated with the SIR since its inception in the state, and there, he has become the brand ambassador of the process.”

“So today it has been proven that even Congress people do not take the party’s statements seriously. What Jairam Ramesh is saying even DK Shivakumar isn’t taking seriously,” he remarked.

“Whenever the Congress loses any election, they try finding reasons like SIR, EVMs, etc. In fact, what is now proven is that every season, Rahul Gandhi or the Congress will come with one or the other alibi to protect the (Gandhi) family’s repeated electoral failures,” Bhandari claimed.

BJP MP Sujeet Kumar called the Opposition’s step a “crybaby approach” which has been going on for a long time.

“They have not been able to specify what irregularities they are referring to. This is not the first time that SIR is being conducted by the Election Commission of India. It is the constitutional mandate of the ECI to conduct free and fair elections, and for that, electoral rolls need to be revised from time to time,” he said.

However, Congress national spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that the INDIA bloc had decided in its meeting to write to the CJI because the manner in which the SIR is being conducted is a “systematic and sustained attempt to disenfranchise people”.

“This is the biggest attack on the right to vote guaranteed by the Constitution of India. As custodians of the law, the CJI and the courts should take cognisance of the matter and act on it,” she told IANS.

Asserting that the INDIA bloc is “very strong”, Tamil Nadu Congress chief Manickam Tagore alleged: “The BJP is using agencies like CBI, ED and IT departments and through horse trading, they are breaking parties like Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT).”

–IANS

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