As the Election Commission (EC) announced the rollout of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Punjab, beginning June 15, the Punjab Congress has questioned the timing of the revision ahead of the 2027 Assembly election.
Party leaders said EC should have waited for the report of the Census 2027 before going ahead with the intensive revision of the electoral rolls.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today questioned the timing of the SIR of the electoral rolls in Punjab when the state is headed for Assembly election in less than 10 months.
“Bihar and West Bengal elections have proved it beyond any doubt that the BJP government at the Centre, with the help of a compliant EC, can swing the electoral outcome in its favour with the fraudulent exercise of the SIR of electoral rolls,” he observed, while noting that Punjab is headed for elections within less than 10 months, maybe earlier.
Leader of Opposition Partap Bajwa said that in Bengal, 27 lakh genuine voters were disenfranchised. “Since there was not enough time, their appeals for inclusion in the voter list were not settled before the elections. They lost the right to vote,” he said, while cautioning against repeating the same process here.
Former deputy chief minister of Punjab and MP from Gurdaspur, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, asked the Central Government to clarify why SIR is being conducted only in Punjab when elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are scheduled around the same time, and why Uttar Pradesh has been excluded.
Randhawa stated that if EC’s real objective is to make voter lists transparent and error-free, the process could just as well have been conducted after the elections. Implementing it immediately before elections naturally creates suspicion among people that there may be a political motive behind it.
He alleged that BJP intends to use electoral processes in line with its political interests under the influence of the Central Government. He said that in a sensitive and politically aware state like Punjab, such steps have already raised concern among the public.
He further said SIR was not carried out in Punjab along with states such as Uttar Pradesh and Goa, where it was held six months ago, even though these two states are also scheduled to go to elections at the same time as Punjab.
Randhawa stated that through its workers and leaders, the Congress will go village to village and city to city to ensure that no eligible voter is deprived of their democratic rights. He added that protecting democracy is a shared responsibility of all political parties and politically aware citizens.