New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday stepped up its offensive against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, arguing that the exercise had identified only a tiny number of suspected foreign nationals despite subjecting close to 10 crore voters to scrutiny. The party claimed the drive was ultimately aimed at curtailing the franchise of substantial sections of the population, PTI reported.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh highlighted a media report stating that at least 1,600 suspected foreign nationals had been found in six states where the SIR had either been completed or was still ongoing. He said the outcome fell far short of the scale of the revision and the government’s rhetoric around it.
“The Home Minister had said that SIR had a 3D objective: to detect, delete and deport infiltrators so as to ‘purify’ the electoral rolls,” Ramesh said, asking what the exercise had actually achieved.
“In the six states of Karnataka, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Kerala, Goa and Mizoram, just 1,600 foreigners belonging to different countries have been ‘detected and deleted’. Nearly 10 crore people went through the SIR in these states — to find 1,600 ‘foreigners’,” he said.
Ramesh said the remaining 20 states and Union Territories had not made similar figures public because the Election Commission of India had not directed them to compile such data. He also accused Home Minister Amit Shah of lying.
Karnataka Becomes The Flashpoint
Ramesh cited Karnataka to underline what the Congress sees as a stark imbalance: while 99.7 lakh names were removed from the state’s final electoral rolls, only 716 foreign nationals were identified, including 545 from Nepal.
“This only proves what has been evident all along: that SIR was always intended for ensuring that very large sections of Indians have their constitutional right to vote snatched away,” he alleged.
He alleged that the SIR was a conspiracy planned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah and carried out by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar through multiple channels, including ECINET.
“Gyanesh Kumar has to go. SIR has to be suspended. ECINET has to be revamped,” Ramesh said, laying out the Congress’s demands.
EC Defends Its Record
The comments came after the Congress on Tuesday dismissed the Election Commission’s affidavit in the Supreme Court as “deceptive, deceitful and duplicitous”, saying it was “extremely damaging” to the poll body itself. Ramesh had said: “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. And when we have done it for a while, it comes out in a crooked style.”
The Election Commission, in its 248-page response to a petition challenging the CEC and several of its decisions, maintained that the SIR was legally authorised and that its orders—issued on June 24, 2025, October 27, 2025 and May 14, 2026—were approved unanimously by all three members.
The commission also rejected suggestions that Form 6, the statutory form for voter registration, had been changed, stating that no amendment had been made to it.
Ramesh’s remarks followed an Indian Express report claiming that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections at least 14 times over the previous 10 months, mostly relating to SIR decisions and orders.
The Election Commission said differing views and observations were a normal feature of deliberations in any institution, and maintained that all its orders carried full legal sanction and adhered to established procedures. Congress, however, repeated its demands for Kumar’s removal, suspension of the SIR, and a comprehensive revamp of ECINET.
