Gandhinagar, Feb 18 (IANS) The political parties in Gujarat have reacted strongly following the release of the state’s final voter list, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defending the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and the Congress raising concerns over transparency and procedural issues.
Gujarat BJP Spokesperson Anil Patel, on Tuesday, defended the voter list purification exercise, known as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), noting that it has been conducted repeatedly across India since independence.
“Errors such as duplicate entries or unremoved names of deceased voters occur from time to time. For Gujarat, the final electoral draft has now separated correct entries from incorrect ones. Citizens who turned 18 years by January 1 can still submit Form-6, and any remaining errors can be corrected using Forms 6, 7 and 8,” Patel said.
He also criticised Congress leaders, asserting, “Under the guidance of Rahul Gandhi, Congress leaders sometimes created misleading narratives against the Election Commission and attempted to affect democratic processes. Media channels were also used to create controversy. The statistics from the Election Commission clarify the truth.”
State BJP Spokesperson Patel emphasised that the BJP views voters as partners in democracy rather than merely as a vote bank.
He added that whether the election is for local self-government, the state Assembly, or the Parliament, the party contests based on organisational strength and government performance and has full faith in public support.
In contrast, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President Amit Chavda criticised aspects of the SIR process.
“The Special Intensive Revision began on October 27 last year. The Booth Level Officers (BLOs) went door-to-door to update voter details. Under severe mental pressure, some BLOs lost their lives, and cases of suicide occurred due to extreme distress,” Chavda said.
He provided details of the final voter list, saying, “The draft SIR list saw the removal of 74 lakh voters. The final SIR list now includes 4,40,30,725 voters, a reduction of 68,12,711 names compared to the previous list. A total of 9,56,000 new voters have been added, and 3,95,555 names have been removed. The Election Commission should make booth-wise details of these additions and deletions publicly available.”
Chavda also called for accountability, urging, “Criminal action should be taken against those submitting false Form 7s. The public should know which officers were involved, and CCTV footage of submissions should be released. No legitimate voter should be disenfranchised. During this process, Congress and the public took to the streets to protect voting rights against any collusion between BJP and the Election Commission.”
The SIR process, conducted over more than three months, involved extensive field verification to remove duplicate entries, names of deceased voters, and those who had migrated.
–IANS
mys/khz