New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday demanded an impartial investigation into the country's voter lists and a halt to the SIR process after errors appeared in the voter list for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council election.
It also said that the Election Commission (EC) cannot blame the software for a "premeditated conspiracy orchestrated to help the BJP," and this is unacceptable because the integrity of voter lists is being put at the mercy of the software.
The opposition party also demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the BJP, in collusion with the EC, has "stolen" previous elections including the 2024 general elections and several assembly polls.
"Our clear demand is that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign immediately, and an immediate halt be imposed on this fake SIR process being run with the intent of benefiting the BJP.
"An impartial investigation into the voter list must be conducted, the complete machine-readable data must be made public, and the protection of every eligible citizen's voting rights must be ensured," Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X while sharing a media report.
He said the national poll body is trying to put the blame for a "premeditated conspiracy orchestrated to help the BJP on the software, which is unacceptable".
Citing discrepancies in voters' names-"Ram Ne Yadav Ko Mara", "Murkh Chandra Yadav" and "B. Com"- he asked if such "errors" surfaced in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council election, how can it be claimed that they did not happen in other elections.
"Has the integrity of India's democracy and the voter list been left entirely to the mercy of software and ECINET? The responsibility lies with the Election Commission, not the software," Ramesh asserted in his post.
"This statement by the election official reinforces the questions raised by two Election Commissioners and the opposition's firm belief that the Election Commission is being run in an unconstitutional manner," the Congress leader also said.
Ramesh recalled that earlier, a case of vote theft had come to light in Pilibhit, where details of 10,470 voters were altered through the EC's Form 8, even though no supporting records were available to justify these changes.
The Form 8 is used by registered voters to request the EC to update or change their records, such as address or name.
Most of the voters whose details were "altered" belong to a particular community, which the BJP has "consistently persecuted," he alleged.
"Such discrepancies raise suspicions of a conspiracy to deprive them of their voting rights at the time of polling. Additionally, complaints have been received about names going missing from the voter list issued after SIR and incorrect details appearing when searching for online EPIC numbers," the Congress leader said.
To date, he said, the Election Commission has not provided machine-readable data as demanded by the Congress and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
"Only when the full data is made available can a clearer investigation be conducted into the extent of irregularities in the voter list and questions of accountability," he said.
Noting that there are only a few months left until the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Ramesh said these emerging cases raise serious questions about voters' rights and electoral transparency.
"There should be an impartial investigation into whether the prescribed rules for notices and hearings were followed in the process of adding and removing names from the voter list.
"The very SIR, whose declared objective was to purify the voter lists, has instead cast doubts on their reliability. The suspicion in the minds of the country's people-that election theft occurred in the previous Lok Sabha elections and in states like Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, etc.-is now turning into conviction. We firmly believe that the BJP has won by colluding with the Election Commission to steal elections," Ramesh claimed.
Rattled by Rahul Gandhi's questions on vote theft, he said, the prime minister and the BJP, instead of answering the real questions of the people, are continuously launching personal attacks on Rahul Gandhi.
"The BJP should know that the country has recognized its petty tactics over the past twelve years. Now, this will not work again and again," Ramesh said.
The Congress is up in arms against the special intensive revision of electoral rolls and has been demanding a complete halt to the process.
The Congress, along with other opposition parties of the INDIA bloc, launched a series of protests earlier this month and met President Droupadi Murmu and filed a petition before the Chief Justice of India against the SIR exercise and the CEC, demanding his removal.