The Raijor Dal chief alleges large-scale voter deletions in Assam and cites discrepancies involving prominent political and administrative figures during Delhi’s ongoing electoral-roll revision
Guwahati: Raijor Dal president and MLA Akhil Gogoi on September 21 alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls had become a tool for the BJP government to influence elections and target political opponents.
The Sivasagar MLA claimed that the exercise had resulted in the deletion of names of “hundreds of thousands” of voters in Assam and alleged that a similar process had been used against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “The SIR has actually become the BJP government’s biggest weapon to topple governments and help the BJP win,” he said.
Gogoi’s remarks came against the backdrop of discrepancies flagged during Delhi’s SIR, where prominent names including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and Election Commissioner S S Sandhu have figured in the verification process. Several senior serving and retired bureaucrats have also been flagged over issues such as “no mapping” and name mismatches.
Advani’s case has drawn particular attention because the previous electoral roll being used for mapping dates back to 2002, when he was serving as deputy prime minister. The list has also included Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other prominent figures.
Gogoi cited such cases to argue that the exercise exposed “systemic difficulties and errors”. He questioned how reliable the process could be if the electoral records of prominent public figures were also being flagged.
The matter has also reached the Supreme Court, where a petition has sought disclosure of the names of voters served notices and the basis for classifications such as “logical discrepancies” and “no mapping”. The court is scheduled to hear the matter on September 22.
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