PANAJI: BJP State President Damodar Naik on Saturday hit out at the Congress over its criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the Opposition was using the exercise to create a political narrative ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.
Naik said SIR was not a process introduced by the BJP and argued that revision of electoral rolls was necessary to account for voters who had died, shifted residence or were otherwise no longer eligible to remain on the rolls. “SIR is not a creation or baby of the BJP. SIR has been an integral part of the electoral process since the country gained independence and held its first election in 1952,” Naik said.
He claimed that the exercise had been delayed and should be undertaken periodically to ensure that electoral rolls remain updated. “This is the eighth SIR. It was delayed by 8-10 years; in fact, delayed by 23 years. It ought to happen systematically every 10 years across the entire country, because names change, many people pass away, shift locations, or insert bogus or fake names,” he said.
Taking a swipe at the Congress, Naik compared its present objections to the SIR with its earlier criticism of electronic voting machines. “The BJP is an eyesore to everyone, especially the Congress and other opposition parties. The reason is that the BJP has worked gradually at the grass-roots level, serving the people and rising among them. When a person or a party rises like this, it naturally causes envy. So, they come up with various excuses,” he said.
“When the EVM argument failed, we said, ‘Let’s conduct elections with ballot papers.’ We conducted the District Panchayat elections using ballot papers, and the BJP still won a complete majority. They realised playing that old cassette was useless, so now they have put on a new cassette and are using SIR as an excuse, claiming names were deleted, and so on,” Naik said.
He also alleged that the Congress had benefited from allegedly bogus entries in electoral rolls and made claims linking such entries to Rohingya migrants and alleged infiltrators. “Who should verify these names? Let these opposition leaders explain. Some Rohingyas came... in border areas where Congress operated; many infiltrators entered from West Bengal,” he alleged.
“These Rohingyas entered through illegal means/money, and they definitely won’t vote for the BJP. Who acts as their ultimate protector, aai-bapu? It is the Congress! That is why they are conducting this Congress Rakhan Yatra,” Naik said. He alleged that people who had entered illegally were provided documents and brought into the electoral process. “Those who crossed the borders and percolated into the villages, it was these people who identified them, provided protection, ration cards and voting cards, and brought them forward,” he alleged.
Naik said the SIR process would remove ineligible entries but maintained that genuine Goan voters whose names were inadvertently left out would be restored. “If any genuine Goans, Goykars, were left out by mistake, that will be rectified, but bogus entries will be removed,” he said.
The BJP state president also dismissed the suggestion that the SIR controversy would affect his party. “It does not affect us at all! The BJP stands on the love of the people, the dedication of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the hard work of workers who sweated and wore out their shoes to build this party,” he said.
