Kiren Rijiju Challenges Congress Over Electoral Integrity and Voter Roll Revisions

Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju has accused the Congress party of collaborating with external forces to undermine the Indian Constitution. In a social media post, the Minister challenged the opposition to answer five questions regarding their past electoral losses and their stance on voter list updates.

Rijiju specifically questioned why Congress faced a third consecutive defeat in 2024 and how they performed poorly in 2014 when their own government appointed the Election Commissioners. He also asked if the party believes that the names of deceased individuals, duplicates, and illegal immigrants should be removed from the electoral rolls.

The friction comes as the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists becomes a central point of political conflict. While the government defends the integrity of the exercise, opposition parties have alleged that there are irregularities in how the rolls are being updated.

In response to the ongoing tensions, leaders from the INDIA bloc scheduled a public impeachment program against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has invited the public to join a march in New Delhi starting from the Minto Road junction, though police sources indicated that no formal permission had been requested for the event.