Siddesh Naik Defends SIR Exercise, Says Clean Electoral Rolls Are Essential for Free and Fair Elections
Goa Khabar: BJP Goa State Media Convenor Siddesh Shripad Naik has strongly criticised the Congress party for opposing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that its agitation is aimed at creating political confusion and misleading the public rather than protecting democracy.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday, Naik defended the SIR exercise, stating that the revision of electoral rolls is essential to ensure transparency, electoral integrity and the participation of genuine voters.
Questioning the Congress party’s agitation at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, Naik challenged its claims of mobilising ten lakh people for the protest. He claimed that the venue has an estimated capacity of approximately 50,000 people and that barely 60 participants from Goa reportedly attended the demonstration.
Naik accused Congress of opposing the removal of deceased voters, duplicate entries and names of individuals who have permanently migrated or registered elsewhere.
He questioned whether Congress wanted the names of deceased persons to remain on electoral rolls and why the party was objecting to the deletion of duplicate and ineligible entries.
Referring to figures from Goa, Naik stated that the SIR exercise had identified 25,574 deceased persons, 40,469 permanent migrants and 1,997 individuals registered elsewhere among the deleted entries. He further stated that 12,166 new voters had been added to the electoral rolls.
According to Naik, these figures demonstrate that the revision exercise is intended to maintain accurate electoral records while ensuring that eligible citizens are able to exercise their voting rights.
He also referred to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations concerning the deletion of 13.3 crore names from electoral rolls nationally, including approximately 2.8 crore deceased voters, as cited by Gandhi.
Naik claimed that the Election Commission had sought either a sworn affidavit or an apology from Gandhi over his allegations. He maintained that serious accusations concerning the electoral process must be supported by evidence.
The BJP leader further asserted that electoral rolls belong to the people and should accurately reflect eligible voters rather than serve the political interests of any party.
He maintained that removing deceased voters, duplicate registrations and other ineligible entries was necessary to protect the credibility of elections.
Naik accused Congress of attempting to turn an electoral revision exercise into a political controversy and reiterated that the objective of SIR was to strengthen democratic institutions through accurate and transparent voter records.
Concluding his statement, Naik emphasised the principle of “One Citizen, One Vote”, saying that every eligible citizen should have an equal opportunity to vote and that every vote should be counted only once.
He maintained that clean and credible electoral rolls are fundamental to protecting India’s democratic process.
The allegations and electoral figures cited in the statement are attributed to Naik and have not been independently verified.
