Patna, Oct 29 BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal on Thursday charged the Congress-led opposition of targeting constitutional institutions to cover up electoral defeats and spreading misinformation about the electoral process in the country.
He was speaking at a press conference here as part of the party’s ‘Loktantra Bachao, Bheedtantra Hatao’ (Save Democracy, Remove Mob Rule) campaign.
“Under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, Congress is continuing to mislead the public and question constitutional institutions to cover up its repeated electoral setbacks,” he asserted.
Downplaying opposition criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Jaiswal said it was being conducted “under the constitutional and legal framework governing the Election Commission”.
“The SIR in Bihar made corrections to 47 lakh electoral entries, including those relating to deceased voters, people who had shifted elsewhere, and duplicate entries. No affected individual has come forward to raise concerns about the corrections,” he claimed.
He also accused the opposition of politicising the issue of illegal infiltration, alleging that under the erstwhile TMC government in West Bengal, “instances of Bangladeshi nationals obtaining forged documents and being included in electoral rolls had become a matter of concern”.
“Congress raised doubts about the impartiality of the Election Commission without adequate evidence. Those alleging irregularities should substantiate their claims with facts,” Jaiswal said.
Speaking on the occasion, senior BJP leader and Arwal MLA Manoj Sharma said the opposition was repeatedly attempting to cast doubts on constitutional institutions.
“Efforts are underway to create an atmosphere of malicious and misleading propaganda against constitutional processes,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, addressing another press conference, Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of “depriving 13 crore people of their voting rights” and “conspiring to disenfranchise crores of others in the future”.
He was alluding to the aggregate deletion of 13.69 crore names from electoral rolls across the country under the SIR exercise.
“Thousands of people from Bihar have already reached Delhi to participate in INDIA bloc’s ‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ rally on Sunday, while many others were on their way,” he said.
Former Congress MP Ramchandra Khuntia said the country’s youth were “distressed by unemployment, the deteriorating education system and paper leaks, while farmers, workers and small traders were struggling with lack of employment opportunities and rising prices”.
(PTI News)
