Bhubaneswar, Oct 12 (PTI) Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Monday described SIR as a “necessary exercise” to uphold electoral integrity and protect voters’ rights, while opposition Congress called it a “planned vote chori”.
Majhi’s remarks came as opposition parties demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the cancellation of the entire SIR exercise, alleging that around 13 crore eligible voters have been deleted from electoral rolls.
“SIR is a necessary and constructive exercise to uphold the integrity of our electoral system. Its effective implementation, with fairness and due diligence, will help ensure that electoral records remain reliable and that the democratic process commands the confidence it deserves,” the CM said in a social media post.
Both BJD and Congress rejected Majhi’s statement and raised questions on the timing of the clarification amid protests against Kumar.
“We are not at all opposing the SIR, but the manner in which it was politically used to delete genuine voters. As many as 27.50 lakh voters have been deleted from the rolls, which had never happened in the previous SIRs,” BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty told reporters.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das, who is in Delhi to join the opposition protest against CEC, said in a statement: “The chief minister’s attempt to legitimise the systematic manipulation of the voter list exposes the ruling BJP’s deep-seated fear and its reliance on the misuse of the administration to sustain itself democratically. I strongly reject the defensive remarks made by CM Mohan Charan Majhi.”
Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal said SIR had been conducted eight times during the Congress rule.
“But why such hue and cry when SIR is being conducted for the first time under the BJP rule? It is obvious that some names will be deleted from the electoral rolls due to a voter’s death or shifting to other places. The ultimate aim of SIR is to make the electoral roll error-free, and that is being done,” Samal said.
The chief minister, on the other hand, claimed that the credibility of a democracy rests on free and fair elections and the protection of every eligible citizen’s right to vote.
Clean and accurate electoral rolls are fundamental to this trust, he said, adding that duplicate entries, outdated records and the names of deceased persons remaining on electoral rolls could undermine their accuracy.
He said a reliable voter list was not merely an administrative necessity but essential to safeguarding electoral integrity and ensuring people’s confidence in democracy.
Majhi said SIR has helped identify discrepancies, remove duplicate entries, update records following deaths or changes in residence, and ensure that electoral rolls accurately reflected eligible voters.
At the same time, the process must protect legitimate voters from wrongful exclusion, he said.
“These are not minor administrative details; they go to the heart of electoral fairness, equal representation and the sanctity of every vote,” Majhi said.
Referring to Majhi and Samal’s claim that SIR was a routine exercise, OPCC president Das said, “Now, it has turned out to be a ‘planned vote theft’. The CM must know that there is nothing routine about a process that excludes lakhs of eligible citizens from the voter list. The SIR has been used as an administrative weapon to clear out traditional opposition strongholds and pad the electoral rolls with fake voters.”
“At a time when the entire nation, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and the India bloc, is marching towards the Supreme Court demanding the immediate removal and arrest of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, it is laughable for Chief Minister Majhi to endorse this compromised election panel. The CEC has reduced a constitutional body to a mere wing of the ruling party. We demand his immediate arrest for institutional fraud,” Das said in the statement.
Congress Legislature Party leader Rama Chandra Kadam said, “BJP has killed democracy by misusing the SIR and eliminating genuine voters. Deletion of names from the voter list is a violation of the constitutional rights of people to vote.”
BJD leader Lenin Mohanty cited an instance, saying that the state government was recently forced to suspend two officers after it came to fore that the names of over 200 eligible voters of a minority community were deleted with political motive in Bhadrak district.
“The matter of voter deletion at Dhamnagar assembly segment is enough to prove that SIR has been grossly misused across Odisha,” the BJD leader said. PTI AAM SOM AAM ACD
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