Panaji, Sep 24 (PTI) The Opposition in Goa on Thursday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the ruling BJP of trying to influence the upcoming polls through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls and demanded that it be rolled back.
Referring to reports about Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi red-flagging issues linked to the deletion of names, including in Goa, under the SIR, they said it amounted to sabotaging elections.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee working president Sunil Kawthankar told reporters in Panaji that the BJP was trying to win elections through SIR, as it knows it would be difficult for the party to return to power in states like Goa.
“Deletion of names of valid voters amounts to sabotage. The Election Commission of India has become an arm of the BJP, which they are using to win polls,” he said.
The Congress leader demanded that the SIR exercise be rolled back.
“The BJP is rattled by the support that the Congress has been receiving across the country. That is why they are trying to win elections through these kinds of tactics,” Kawthankar said.
In another press conference, Goa Forward Party president Vijai Sardesai demanded the immediate reinstatement of the names of all voters, except those who have died, that were deleted from the electoral roll.
He claimed that 1.8 lakh voters were excluded from the list during the exercise. He said elections in Goa are won on a thin margin, sometimes with less than 100 votes. In such circumstances, deletion of voters will lead to wrong results in the 2027 elections.
Sardesai said that since there is no time for the Election Commission to conduct the SIR again as the polls are approaching, the best way is to roll back the entire exercise.
Opposition parties across the country have demanded scrapping of the SIR exercise and mounted a fierce attack on CEC Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that he was running the poll panel as a “one-man autocracy” and demanding his impeachment and arrest, referring to a report in the Indian Express. PTI RPS NR
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