SC observation on Bihar voter list 'befitting reply': BJP hits back at opposition

The BJP on Friday said the Supreme Court’s observation on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar was a “befitting reply” to the opposition parties and demanded a “public apology” from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav for opposing the exercise.

It accused the Congress of adopting “double standards” on the issue, saying the main opposition party, which strongly opposed a proposal to link Aadhaar to voter IDs earlier, contending that people’s citizenship cannot be determined on the basis of it, is now favouring it.

The top court on Thursday allowed the Election Commission of India to continue with its special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, calling it a “constitutional mandate”. It also asked the poll panel to consider Aadhaar, Voter ID and ration cards as valid documents during the exercise.

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Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said following the apex court’s order, the Election Commission now has to include the EPIC, Aadhar cards, and Ration Cards in the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar.

“This will save a vast majority of voters from being disenfranchised,” he said in a post on X.

Asked for a comment on the Congress favouring linking of Aadhaar to Voter IDs, BJP MP and national spokesperson Sambit Patra told PTI Videos, “This is called double standards.” Calling the Congress’ stand a “U-turn”, he said the main opposition party had earlier strongly opposed linking Aadhaar to Voter IDs while some of its leaders had even approached the Supreme Court in the matter, contending that citizenship cannot be decided based on Aadhaar.

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Patra said that the Congress is today asking to determine citizenship based on Aadhaar, taking an about-turn on the issue, because it knows “very well” that it is going to suffer defeat in the upcoming elections.

Another BJP national spokesperson, Gaurav Bhatia, said the apex court’s observations made it clear that the SIR is a process to bring transparency and fairness in voting.

The apex court has also made it clear that initiation of a special drive for intensive revision of the electoral rolls comes within the jurisdiction of the Election Commission from a constitutional point of view, he said.

“The Supreme Court’s comment is a befitting reply to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav,” the BJP leader told reporters.

He demanded that Yadav and Gandhi “publicly apologise to the people of India and Bihar”, taking cognisance of the apex court’s observations.

“Will Tejashwi Yadav accept the Supreme Court’s decision (observations) or not?’ he asked.

Bhatia asked Gandhi to explain why he was protesting on the streets of Patna a day before the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear the matter.

“This makes it clear that these leaders have no faith in the Supreme Court,” he charged.

Bhatia asked both Yadav and Gandhi to “introspect” and said, “People will keep giving a befitting reply to those parties and leaders who do not have faith in the constitution and constitutional institutions.” The BJP leader also attacked the Congress, claiming “internal tussle” in the party over its chief minister’s face in Karnataka, and said, “While people are fed up with the Congress government in the state, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar are happy.” The people want good governance in Karnataka, but these two leaders only want to enjoy power, he alleged.

“The people of Karnataka are asking today, who will take care of them? One leader wants to continue holding the chair (of chief minister), while the other leader wants to get it (from him)," he said in an apparent reference to Siddaramiah and Shivakumar. “The kind of dirty politics that the Congress party is doing in Karnataka, the people of the state are suffering. This is very unfortunate,” he added.