New Delhi, May 27 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict upholding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and asserted that Opposition parties should stop using the process as a justification for their repeated electoral defeats.

The reaction came after the apex court upheld the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct the SIR exercise, ruling that the revision of electoral rolls falls within the constitutional and statutory authority of the poll body and is aimed at protecting the integrity of the electoral process.

Reacting to the verdict, BJP leader Rohan Gupta told IANS that the Supreme Court had delivered a “clear-cut” ruling in favour of the SIR process and said the decision exposed those attempting to politicise the issue.

“I believe this is a slap for those who were doing politics over the issue of SIR. This is the same SIR process that Rahul Gandhi referred to during a press conference in Bengaluru, where he spoke about alleged errors in the voter list in Karnataka. When SIR was introduced to correct those issues, it was opposed as well,” Gupta said.

He further claimed that Opposition parties had repeatedly failed to gain public support and were now attempting to blame the electoral process for their losses.

“Bihar and Bengal rejected them, and now, the Supreme Court has also made the decision. Now, they should stop this protest. Now they cannot use the SIR process as an excuse for their electoral defeat,” he added.

Speaking to IANS, BJP Bihar President Sanjay Saraogi said the verdict was expected because the Election Commission has full authority to conduct such an exercise to rectify discrepancies in voter lists.

“This is the decision that was bound to come. The Election Commission has the authority to conduct an SIR. The voter list, which contains the names of deceased individuals, names at two places, permanently shifted individuals, or Rohingya/Bangladeshis, needs to be rectified, and the Election Commission has the right to do so. The voter list was being rectified through SIR,” Saraogi said.

He alleged that Opposition parties were attempting to create confusion before elections to mislead the public.

“The Opposition tried to create this environment before the elections to mislead people. They wanted the fake voters to remain in the list so that they could get the bogus votes,” he added.

Bihar Minister Shrawon Kumar also welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision and accused Opposition parties of spreading misinformation among voters.

“I welcome the decision of the Supreme Court. Those in the Opposition who were raising this issue and unnecessarily trying to mislead the people of Bihar by resorting to falsehoods were also attempting to mislead voters and making baseless allegations against the Election Commission,” Kumar told IANS.

Uttar Pradesh Minister Danish Azad Ansari said the SIR process would strengthen democratic institutions by ensuring transparency and fairness in elections.

“If elections are conducted with transparency and in a fair manner, the beauty of our Constitution will certainly become even stronger. The process aims to correct and update the voter list. The entire SIR exercise is a corrective approach to ensure fair elections and strengthen the Constitution. However, it is unfortunate that the Opposition tried to spread confusion over the issue for political gains,” he said.

“The Opposition knows that the public has completely rejected them because they never worked with an agenda of public service,” Azad added.

Uttar Pradesh Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar said the Supreme Court’s approval further reinforced the independence and authority of the Election Commission.

“The Supreme Court’s decision is being welcomed. The Election Commission is independent, and the Supreme Court has also put its seal of approval on it. The Election Commission has the authority and power to conduct SIR in any state,” Rajbhar said.

“The Opposition is just whining. Their weakness is that they used to engage in bogus voting, even votes were cast in the names of people who had died and gone to heaven. Now, the Election Commission has stopped that,” he alleged.

BJP Telangana President N. Ramchander Rao also welcomed the ruling and said the campaign launched by Opposition parties against the SIR process had now collapsed.

“The campaign made by opposition parties, the INDIA bloc, against the SIR has now been shattered. The Supreme Court’s judgment clearly says that there is no suspicious thing in the SIR process,” Rao said.

“The campaign made by these Opposition parties was only to mislead the people. And they wanted to give some explanation to the people as to why they are losing. They have lost because people have defeated them,” he added.

Rao further said that the BJP welcomed the verdict and expressed confidence that the SIR exercise would help ensure free and fair elections in the future.

–IANS

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