Rajasthan Congress Alleges BJP Bid To Manipulate Voter Rolls During SIR Exercise

The Rajasthan Congress on Thursday alleged large-scale irregularities in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, accusing the ruling BJP of carrying out a coordinated attempt to manipulate voter lists by deleting thousands of names.

At a press conference at the State Congress headquarters in Jaipur, Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Govind Singh Dotasra and Leader of the Opposition Tikaram Jully accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of submitting thousands of bulk, pre-printed applications overnight, describing it as a “direct attack on democracy and the fundamental right to vote”.

The allegations come as officials conduct hearings under the SIR exercise ahead of the publication of the final electoral rolls in February.

“Nearly three years remaining for the next Rajasthan Assembly elections, a SIR of the voter list is already underway despite there being no mandatory requirement for it,” Dotasra said.

“This process has already delayed elections to Panchayati Raj institutions and urban local bodies, and even after this exercise, polls will be conducted using an inaccurate and ‘fraudulent’ voter list.”

Dotasra said the Congress had “cooperated fully with the Election Commission throughout the SIR process”, but alleged that on the final day for filing objections the BJP launched a “coordinated and illegal exercise” to influence the voter list.

He claimed that BJP’s Rajasthan in-charge B L Santosh held closed-door organisational meetings and issued directions to party leaders on the SIR process.

“Soon after, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a four-hour meeting with BJP leaders in the state, allegedly giving further directions related to the voter revision process,” he said. “The data was then hurriedly distributed on pen drives from the Chief Minister’s Office to BJP leaders for each Assembly constituency.”

Using this material, Dotasra alleged, the BJP submitted thousands of pre-printed forms in bulk across constituencies seeking deletion of names, “many of them carrying forged or mismatched signatures and lacking signatures of BLAs altogether”.

He further claimed that the forms were prepared by a centralised agency in violation of prescribed rules and submitted a day before the draft voter list was to be published, with the aim of removing Congress supporters from the rolls.

Dotasra pointed out that election rules allow a BLA to submit only 50 applications per day for deletion of names and only 10 applications after the draft list is published. However, citing data uploaded by the Chief Electoral Officer till January 14, 2026, he said around 973 BJP BLAs sought the addition of 211 names and deletion of 5,694 names, while 110 Congress BLAs sought the addition of 185 names and deletion of just two names.

“On the evening of January 13, BJP leaders distributed pen drives to MLAs and ministers containing deletion applications for constituencies where the Congress had narrow victories, where it has a strong vote base among Dalit, tribal and minority communities, or where the BJP itself won by slim margins,” he alleged. “In several Assembly constituencies, between 2,000 and 4,000 pre-printed forms were allegedly submitted on a single day by one person.”

He also alleged that the BJP’s central leadership engaged private companies to gather data on Congress supporters, critics of BJP policies, participants in movements such as protests to save the Aravalli range, Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Mitra associates and employee organisations, and that applications were then filed to remove these individuals from the voter list.

“Pressure was being exerted on Booth Level Officers and other officials to accept these forms despite clear violations of Form-7 requirements, including unsigned undertakings,” he said.

Dotasra further claimed that BJP leaders fixed targets to add 50 names per booth, even if they were duplicate entries, while simultaneously deleting names associated with the Congress vote bank.

(with The Indian Express inputs)