BJP defends voter-roll revision as Delhi protests demand election chief’s resignation

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad defended the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls on October 10 as opposition parties demanded that it be halted and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign.

At a press conference, Prasad accused opposition parties of politicising the review after electoral setbacks. He said challenges brought by Congress, Trinamool Congress and other petitioners had not stopped SIR. His remarks described his interpretation of court proceedings rather than announcing a new Supreme Court ruling.

Prasad also referred to judicial officers overseeing aspects of the process in West Bengal after objections from Mamata Banerjee. He alleged that officers had faced misconduct. He accused opponents of promoting a narrative that Indian democracy was under threat and linked it to supposed foreign influence. The report presented no evidence establishing that influence.

The BJP spokesperson contrasted those allegations with economic progress under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing assessments by the IMF and World Bank. These were political arguments in response to the protests, rather than findings resolving complaints about the voter rolls.

Delhi Police sources told the Times of India that roughly 1,000 protesters had been detained by Saturday while trying to reach Jantar Mantar for a Cockroach Janta Party demonstration. Police attributed preventive detentions to the absence of permission for the gathering. The figure was an estimate from the newspaper’s sources.

On Friday, INDIA bloc representatives marched from Parliament towards Rashtrapati Bhavan. A delegation led by Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge met the President to raise concerns about SIR.

Opposition demands include restoring millions of names it says were removed from the rolls, repealing legal protections for the chief election commissioner and replacing electronic voting machines with paper ballots. The allegations about improper deletions remain the opposition’s claims.