The Congress Working Committee (CWC) demanded the immediate restoration of 130 million deleted voters from electoral rolls and a complete halt to the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
In a high-stakes meeting on Tuesday, the party also called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation, holding him morally responsible for what it termed a “fraud exercise to destroy Indian democracy.”
Addressing a press conference, Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal announced plans for a massive nationwide agitation at state and district levels in coordination with INDIA-bloc allies. The party intends to actively reach out to every citizen whose name has been struck off the electoral lists.
Shifting its political strategy from targeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar alone, the Congress leadership directly blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the massive voter roll deletions.
“This is not the game of Gyanesh Kumar. He is only a tool,” Venugopal said. “Whenever dictators lose the confidence of common voters, they will try to find special ways to stay in power. This exercise could not happen without the concurrence of Modi and Amit Shah… The PM should resign as it was his moral responsibility to stop this exercise.”
Opening the CWC meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge harshly criticised the government, comparing its current policies to the 2016 demonetisation.
“History bears witness that ten years ago, this very Prime Minister devastated India’s economy with the decision of ‘demonetisation.’ And now, ten years later, he is destroying our robust democracy through a conspiracy of ‘vote-demonetisation’,” Kharge said. He alleged that the ruling dispensation is intentionally trying to block the youth and marginalised sections from exercising their fundamental democratic rights.
Demands for Transparency and Accountability
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, addressed the CWC and compared the party’s ongoing resistance against the electoral roll changes to the historic 1929 Lahore session where the goal of Purna Swaraj was adopted, urging party members to both oppose and resist the move.
The CWC collectively laid down several key demands:
- Complete data regarding every major change and deletion made to electoral rolls must be made public.
- Time-bound, independent probes must be conducted wherever serious discrepancies emerge.
- Affected voters must be fully informed of their removal and provided a fair opportunity to appeal.
- Political parties must receive accurate electoral rolls and relevant data in a simple, timely format to ensure transparency.
Amid public concern over declining voter counts and internal Election Commission dissent, the Congress plans to team up with INDIA bloc allies for street protests.
