Says Special Intensive Revision is meant to protect genuine voters, accuses Congress of misleading people to shield illegal voting practices
JK News Today
Shopian, Dec 18: Bharatiya Janata Party Jammu and Kashmir spokesman Altaf Thakur on Thursday mounted a sharp attack on the Congress, accusing it of raising the bogey of “vote chori” to mask its discomfort with a transparent and legally mandated electoral process. Addressing a gathering of party workers and local residents in Shopian, Thakur said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is a constitutional exercise aimed at strengthening democracy, not weakening it.
Thakur said that those opposing SIR were doing so not out of concern for voters but out of fear that irregularities in voter lists would finally come to light. “The Congress talks about vote chori, but in reality, they are afraid of clean voter rolls,” he said. “When genuine voters are identified and illegal entries are removed, their politics of confusion collapses.”
Referring to recent scenes in Parliament, the BJP leader said the Congress had deliberately walked out of debate when the issue of SIR and illegal voters was raised. “They never ran away from discussion when their own leaders were mentioned in the House. But the moment the issue of infiltrators and fake voters came up, they chose boycott over debate. This clearly exposes their intentions,” Thakur told the gathering.
He stressed that SIR is being conducted strictly under the constitutional authority of the Election Commission of India, and that similar voter list revisions have been carried out in the past across states ruled by different political parties, including Congress. “Why was SIR acceptable then and suddenly anti‑democratic now?” he asked, adding that the process follows established norms to verify age, citizenship and residence of voters.
Thakur accused the Congress of attempting to mislead people in Jammu and Kashmir by creating unnecessary fear around electoral reforms. “They want people to believe that votes are being stolen, when in fact SIR ensures that no genuine voter is denied his or her right,” he said. “The BJP will not allow even a single illegal vote to dilute the mandate of lawful citizens.”
Calling SIR essential for restoring public faith in elections, Thakur said the BJP would continue to defend every step taken to protect the sanctity of the ballot. “No amount of political drama, boycott or false propaganda will stop us from ensuring clean, fair and transparent elections,” he said, adding that democracy can survive only when voter rolls are free from manipulation.
The BJP spokesman’s address in Shopian comes amid heightened political debate over electoral reforms, with the party seeking to counter Opposition narratives by taking its message directly to the grassroots. Thakur said awareness among voters was key, urging people not to fall for what he described as “manufactured outrage and misleading slogans” by the Congress.
“Our stand is clear,” he said in conclusion. “This is not about politics. This is about democracy. Those shouting vote chori today are the same people who benefitted from dirty voter lists yesterday.”
