New Delhi, May 27 (IANS) A political slugfest intensified on Wednesday over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after the Supreme Court upheld the poll body’s authority to conduct the exercise.

The verdict was hailed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders as a vindication of the party’s long-standing demand for cleaner voter rolls.

The BJP argued that unchecked duplication and infiltration had distorted democratic processes in several states, particularly in border regions.

The Congress and INDIA bloc parties, however, alleged that the SIR exercise had been misused to disenfranchise genuine voters, particularly from minority communities.

They claimed that large-scale deletions in West Bengal and Bihar were politically motivated and aimed at weakening opposition strongholds.

BJP national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi posted a strongly-worded statement on X, describing the ruling as a “constitutional, moral and political defeat” for the Congress and the INDIA bloc.

He wrote that questioning the SIR process after the Supreme Court’s “clear and categorical” decision amounted to opposing the Constitution itself.

Trivedi accused Congress leaders of spreading misinformation regarding the exercise and claimed that even a senior Congress leader from Kerala had once admitted on camera that the removal of duplicate votes during a past revision had benefited the party in that state.

“Today, Congress is becoming the biggest threat to peaceful democratic processes and constitutional order,” he charged.

“After the Supreme Court’s clear and unequivocal decision on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), there is no justification or basis for questioning the constitutionality of this process. The court has clarified that the Election Commission derives this power from Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 21(3) of the RP Act. In other words, this is not an arbitrary process, but a fully constitutional arrangement,” Trivedi said in his post.

“The Supreme Court also stated that merely having a name on the voter list does not confer permanent validity, and the Election Commission cannot be prevented from conducting Special Intensive Revision. Removing fake, deceased and duplicate names is necessary to ensure the purity of democracy and fair elections. This is a moral, constitutional and political defeat for the Congress and the INDIA coalition. The kind of confusion being spread by leaders of the Congress and the INDIA coalition regarding the SIR process is both unfortunate and concerning,” he added.

He further alleged that the opposition, after suffering “decisive defeats” in Bihar and West Bengal, was resorting to “nefarious designs to instigate anarchy” and discredit Constitutional institutions.

Trivedi questioned the Congress party’s priorities, saying it was more interested in holding press conferences abroad and maligning India’s image than in campaigning on the ground or protecting its workers in West Bengal.

“If you are opposing the Supreme Court’s verdict from your party platform, are you not endangering the Constitution itself?” he asked.

Trivedi also targeted Rahul Gandhi directly, questioning the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition’s commitment to governance and national issues.

In an earlier statement, he accused Rahul Gandhi of standing with “illegal infiltrators” rather than genuine voters, and claimed that the opposition’s stance exposed its “true character”.

The controversy surrounding voter roll revisions has frequently witnessed allegations of bias and manipulation. Despite the Supreme Court verdict on the Election Commission’s powers, the issue has once again escalated into a major political confrontation.

–IANS

jb/pgh