New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Wednesday alleged that the SIR being carried out by the Election Commission is an exercise aimed at helping the BJP win elections and urged the Supreme Court to stop the “bulk deletions” taking place under it.
The former Union minister also alleged that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that is ongoing in various states is aimed at helping the BJP win elections.
Sibal’s remarks came over a report in The Indian Express which claimed that in Godda district of Jharkhand, BJP agents are seeking to delete voters, mostly from the minority community, with booth level officers, who are employees of the state government headed by the JMM-Congress, raising red flags over the issue.
In a post on X, Sibal said, “Politics of exclusion. BJP agents: Target Muslims, seek bulk deletions. Supreme Court needs to stop this!”
“SIR is an exercise: To manipulate the voters list. Help BJP win elections!” the Independent Rajya Sabha MP said.
Later, addressing a press conference, Sibal said that in Jharkhand, there were bulk forms called form 7 being filed by BJP workers.
«You can file bulk forms – in the sense you can get 45, take 45 of them, or 100 of them, or even 400 of them. You can file the forms and you can say that this name should be deleted. You don›t have to give any reason for it, and if it is found to be false, it doesn›t matter,» Sibal said.
In this particular report in a national newspaper when investigation was done, the names that were targeted belonged to the Muslim community, he said.
And those people have been interviewed and they have said [they›ve] been living there for years, their families have been living there for years. So if this is the way things are going to be done, what›s the point of having an election?
It has been found that those Muslims whose names were sought to be deleted by bulk forms by BJP workers were actually living there for years, many of them ever since Independence, he said.
