New Delhi: Initiating a fresh round of sparring with the Congress, Union minister Kiren Rijiju has posed five questions to the Grand Old Party about the Special Intensive Review (SIR) of electoral rolls and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
He has challenged the Congress over poll-panel appointments, past electoral rolls revisions and voter list cleanup, even as the INDI bloc continues with its demand for Kumar’s resignation.
In a post, Rijiju urged the Congress to respond to the following:
1. How did the party win only 44 Lok Sabha seats in 2014, when Election Commissioners were appointed by a Congress government?
2. How did it face what he called a heavy defeat in 2024, when Gyanesh Kumar was not yet Chief Election Commissioner?
3. Will Congress chief ministers resign and apologise for forming governments between 2014 and 2026?
4. Should voter list names of illegal immigrants, dead voters, those who have shifted and duplicates be removed or not?
5. Were SIR exercises carried out in 1952-56, 1958-61, 1965-66, 1983-84, 1987-88, 1993, 1995 and 2002-2004 illegal?
A “one family party with outside forces” is trying to destroy the Constitution and Indian democracy, he claimed before concluding, as reported by timesnow.in.
Meanwhile, members of the INDI bloc may seek a fresh meeting with President Droupadi Murmu to submit the proof of ‘vote theft’.
The Opposition is also planning to hold larger protests next month against Kumar.
Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has called for a mega “Chalo Dilli” march and rally scheduled on Sunday.
