Deleting names is not theft, Sambit Patra tells Rahul Gandhi over 13 crore 'stolen votes' claim

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra on Monday rejected Rahul Gandhi’s charge that 13 crore votes had been “stolen”, saying the removal of names during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was part of checking the list, not theft.

Speaking to reporters in Varanasi, the Puri MP described the SIR as a process of “verifying and purifying” the rolls. It weeds out entries for voters who are absent, have moved permanently, died or are registered twice, he said, and similar exercises have been carried out before.

‘Why aren’t your agents checking?’

Patra said Booth-Level Officers go door to door to verify voters, and that every party can appoint Booth-Level Agents to go through the rolls. He asked why the opposition’s agents were not doing so. Voters who have changed address, or whose names are missing, can be added back by filling in the prescribed form, he said.

He pointed to West Bengal, where he said Trinamool Congress candidates had won in several constituencies in which many names were reported to have been removed. He also dismissed the charge that young people were being kept off the rolls, saying new young voters had been added.

Infiltration charge

Patra defended the Election Commission and said the opposition was losing elections because of its own weak political standing, not because of the revision. He also raised the issue of infiltration in West Bengal and the inclusion of such people in the rolls, saying only Indian citizens should have the right to vote.

His remarks came a day after the INDIA bloc’s rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, where Rahul Gandhi said Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar would one day be removed and “sent to jail for treason”.