The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday launched a 15-day campaign, ‘Loktantra Bachao, Bheedtantra Hatao’ (Save Democracy, Remove Mobocracy). The campaign which began on Thursday will continue till November 5. The campaign will feature rallies, press conferences, youth and student dialogues and outreach to civil society groups to defend its position on electoral processes and counter the opposition’s allegations over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and its demand for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, senior party leaders said on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, BJP state president Sanjay Saraogi and state organisation general secretary Bhikhubhai Dalsania reviewed the campaign strategy with state office-bearers.
The campaign will focus on electoral roll accuracy, protection of voting rights, accountability of political parties and public confidence in democratic institutions.
The BJP has accused opposition parties, particularly the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M), of spreading misleading claims about electoral rolls and undermining trust in the electoral process.
The campaign’s outreach will extend to social media, influencer engagement under the theme ‘Ghuspethiya Hatao, Loktantra Bachao’ (Remove infiltrators, save democracy), and the distribution of publications, booklets and other publicity material.
Saraogi said the BJP will reach people across Bihar to strengthen democracy, ensure the integrity of electoral rolls and protect constitutional values. The campaign is intended to present the party’s position on these issues and challenge the opposition’s claims, he said.
The party aims to counter what it calls misleading claims by the opposition and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over the revision exercise, which has triggered protests over the deletion of large numbers of voters’ names from electoral rolls.
“We have been asking the opposition to give us even one name that has been wrongfully deleted from the electoral roll during the SIR. They have not been able to provide one and are unnecessarily trying to mislead people over the SIR,” BJP media in-charge Danish Eqbal said.
He claimed that those whose names had been deleted were either deceased, registered as voters at multiple places or had shifted elsewhere.
The opposition has argued that the exercise has led to the deletion of crores of voters’ names, raising concerns over the integrity and inclusiveness of electoral rolls and casting shadow on the manner in which public representatives were elected in a democracy.