Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Bhakta Charan Das on Monday strongly rejected Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s defence of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, describing it as a planned exercise in “vote theft” rather than a routine administrative process.
Responding to the Chief Minister’s statement, Das issued a press release from the INDIA bloc protest site in Delhi. He said the removal of lakhs of verified citizens from voter lists through a special process had nothing routine about it. “This is a planned ‘vote theft’. SIR is being used as an administrative weapon to clear traditional opposition strongholds and fill the lists with fake voters,” Das stated.
The OPCC chief criticised Majhi’s support for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at a time when Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and INDIA bloc leaders were demanding his immediate exclusion and arrest while marching towards the Supreme Court. “Supporting this compromised election panel is laughable. The CEC has turned a constitutional institution into a branch of the ruling party. We demand his immediate arrest for institutional fraud,” Das said.
On the Chief Minister’s claim of complete transparency in recent election revisions and digital systems managing Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), Das remarked that talk of digital security was like “a thief’s face being pulled taut.” He alleged the Commission was involved in irregularities ranging from manipulated EVMs to targeted deletion of specific sections of voters through SIR. He demanded that all recent “illegal” elections be cancelled and that India fully return to ballot-paper voting to restore public trust.
Das also condemned the heavy police deployment in central Delhi, including the closure of metro stations and deployment of over 35,000 security personnel to stop a peaceful march to the Supreme Court. He said the silence of the Odisha Chief Minister on alleged police excesses against students, youth and women protesters showed that the BJP could no longer face the public without barricades and prohibitory orders.
Announcing the next phase of action, Das said the OPCC would carry the national agitation sparked by Rahul Gandhi’s press conference and the Supreme Court march into every district of Odisha. The party and INDIA alliance partners will demand complete withdrawal and cancellation of SIR, a comprehensive audit of all recently published voter lists, and accountability for alleged electoral fraud under the current CEC.
He added that ongoing protests against the amended MMDR Act, the demand for the resignation of Education Minister Nityananda Gond, and immediate relief for flood victims would also be intensified.
The statement comes amid continuing opposition criticism of the Special Intensive Revision process in several states, which ruling parties describe as a necessary clean-up of electoral rolls and the opposition terms a selective deletion exercise. The Election Commission has maintained that SIR is a standard statutory exercise conducted under its mandate.
