Kolkata, Nov. 3 -- The political heat over the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls intensified on Tuesday, with BJP national general secretary Smriti Irani accusing the Opposition of undermining democratic institutions after electoral defeats.
Her remarks came amid growing Opposition allegations of irregularities in the exercise and accusations that the poll panel was facilitating "vote chori".
Addressing a Press conference in Salt Lake as part of the BJP's "Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao" (Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy) campaign, Irani said political parties should accept electoral verdicts instead of questioning institutions after losing elections.
"Congress repeatedly loses elections because of its own reasons. Earlier, it used to blame the EVMs; now it blames the Election Commission," she said.
She said that the Congress had lost 56 elections from 2014 to 2025 before the current SIR exercise, alleging that the poll defeats stemmed from its own leadership failures. Irani accused the Opposition INDIA Bloc of undermining constitutional institutions by questioning the Election Commission's integrity over the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
"Those who are dreaming of regime change today should be told from the soil of West Bengal that the country's 900 million voters are the guardians of India's democracy," Irani said, questioning the Opposition's criticism of several institutions, including the Election Commission, EVMs, Parliament and the Supreme Court.
"How can you attack every democratic institution whenever the electoral result does not go in your favour?" she asked, accusing the Opposition of trying to create distrust in the democratic process.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.