Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday said Special Intensive Review (SIR) has been conducted by every government, but the opposition finds it objectionable only when they lose an election.
This is not the first time an SIR is being conducted in the country, the BJP leader said, speaking to reporters.
“Do they (opposition parties) have objections to the cleansing (of voter lists) or the proper voting process? In other words, are they afraid of losing?” Scindia said.
‘People’s decision is paramount for all of us’
“Now, where they win, SIR is very good, and if they lose, it is bad. This is a democracy, and the people’s decision is paramount for all of us,” he added.
Scindia’s remarks come amid a row over SIR exercise in many states, mostly where opposition is in power. In Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal, for example, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee a strongly-worded letter to Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday, asking him to immediately halt the exercise that she claimed was “chaotic, coercive and dangerous”.
The TMC chief mentioned that she has “time and again” raised concerns over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state and is now “compelled to write” to the chief election commissioner because the situation has reached a “deeply alarming stage”.
4.5 crore names removed in UP, alleges AAP
Elsewhere, the Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday claimed that over 4.5 crore names have been removed from Uttar Pradesh’s voter list in a month, as it alleged that the electoral rolls have been manipulated and demanded the Supreme Court order a probe into the matter.
Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh accused the state government and Election Commission officials of orchestrating “the largest electoral fraud in UP’s history under the name of SIR”.
The state’s voter count dropped from 17 crore in December 2025 to 12.55 crore after the “so-called thorough revision,” effectively making over 4.5 crore voters disappear, he claimed. “This is a direct attack on democracy and the Constitution.”
In Rajasthan, state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra on Wednesday said a pen drive with constituency-wise data was issued from the chief minister ‘s residence with the aim of deleting 4,000 to 5,000 Congress-leaning voters in each assembly segment.
The Bharatiya Janata Party refuted the allegation, saying Dotasra was making “baseless” claims.
Alleging a “large-scale conspiracy” to cut the Congress vote bank in the state, the Congress state chief said the data was provided after Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent visit to Jaipur and circulated among BJP leaders.
