The BJP on Thursday defended the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi hitting back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his allegations against the poll panel.
Trivedi’s remarks came a day after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally recorded objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and procedures relating to electoral-roll management, including aspects of the ongoing SIR exercise.
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The BJP leader sought to counter Gandhi’s criticism by questioning the Congress leader’s assessment of India’s electoral and political history.
"Just a short while ago, Rahul Gandhi once again presented a PPT in front of you. He claimed that he has been understanding politics for 50 years, but his own age is only 56... In Bengal, there has been no Congress government since 1977; in Bihar, there has been no Congress government since 1990... Rahul Gandhi has no knowledge of this... Ever since transparent elections have taken place, CCTV cameras have come in, and independent media has arrived, that's when they've started sweating to come to power... Politically speaking, Rahul Gandhi's knowledge is zero," Trivedi said.
Gandhi had earlier cited the report on the objections by the two Election Commissioners while questioning the functioning of the Election Commission and alleging that elections had been "rigged".
The Congress leader also questioned why anti-incumbency, which he said had historically affected governments across states, appeared to have weakened in recent elections involving the BJP.
"Indian elections, Lok Sabha Elections, 2024 elections, Vidhan Sabha Elections are all being rigged. The people on top of that list are who we call the conspirators. By the way, Mr Gyanesh Kumar, who is sitting there two election commissioners, two election commissioners are raising questions about that man. I have been raising questions; those questions were ignored. People of India believed it. But the institutional framework of India was not interested. But now, two election commissioners, by the way, chosen by the leadership. Gyanesh Kumar was chosen by the Prime Minister of India, not by anybody less. He was chosen by Amit Shah. And now two election commissioners are saying that Mr Gyanesh Kumar is responsible for the chaos, for the damage that has taken place to our voting system," he said.
The Election Commission has rejected the suggestion that the objections reported by the two commissioners reflected a disagreement over its final decisions, saying that its decisions, including those concerning SIR, were unanimous.
BJP counters anti-incumbency argument
Trivedi also challenged Gandhi’s contention that anti-incumbency had effectively disappeared in states where the BJP was in power.
"Second, Rahul Gandhi said: 'Anti-incumbency is an established truth of this country, and that has happened after the BJP came to power.' I believe that, politically speaking, it shows a total absence of wisdom, and politically speaking, a complete void of knowledge. Rahul Gandhi ji doesn't know this, yes, it is true that anti-incumbency is definitely very consistent and strong against the Congress," Trivedi said.
He cited the Congress's electoral history in several states to argue that voters had rejected the party well before the BJP emerged as a major national political force.
"Does he have no knowledge of Indian political history? Ever since 1967, the Congress has never returned to power in Tamil Nadu-and back then, the Bharatiya Janata Party was not even in the picture. In Bengal, the Congress has not returned to power since 1977. And from 1977 to 2011, for 34 years, there was a Communist government in power. Yet, Rahul Gandhi simply cannot understand this; he cannot see it," the BJP MP said.
"In Bihar, there has been no Congress government since 1990. In UP, Congress has not been in power since 1989. Since 1999, Congress has not been in power in Odisha. Rahul Gandhi has no knowledge of this... Ever since transparent elections have taken place, CCTV cameras have come in, and independent media has arrived, they've started finding it difficult to come to power," he added.
Gandhi, meanwhile, argued that electoral outcomes in states such as Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat showed a pattern that he said was inconsistent with the historical impact of anti-incumbency.
"Haryana swings from one party to another for 50 years. Suddenly anti-incumbency disappears. Maharashtra swings; suddenly it disappears. Uttar Pradesh swings. Sometimes Samajwadi, sometimes BSP; it disappears. Madhya Pradesh, it disappears. Gujarat, it disappears. This has been a fundamental question for us. We can understand the popularity of a person, and the performance of a government, but we cannot understand how anti-incumbency disappears. Anti-incumbency does not exist in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It does not exist in North Korea. There is no democracy on this planet where anti-incumbency does not exist..." Gandhi said.
The SIR exercise has become a major political issue, with the Election Commission undertaking revisions of electoral rolls across states and Union territories. The controversy has also brought scrutiny to the procedures used for voter additions and deletions and the technology underlying electoral-roll management.
