BJP creating voter list to its liking by removing backwards, Dalits: Rahul Gandhi on SIR

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that booth-level officers (BLOs) were being threatened to remove OBC voters' names from electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

“Remove the names of OBC voters or you will lose your job. Pressure, threats… and the result? Suicide. In the name of SIR, backward, Dalit, deprived and poor voters are being removed so that the BJP can shape the voter list as it wants. The Election Commission is responsible for the killing of democracy," said Gandhi on X in Hindi.

Citing the death of BLO Vipin Yadav from Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, who allegedly died by suicide, the Congress on X said that Yadav was told, “Cut the names of OBC voters or your job will be finished.”

The Congress said the SDM and a revenue officer had allegedly pressured him to delete OBC names and threatened him with dismissal and even police action if he did not comply.

The party said this was the true picture of SIR and how BLOs were being forced into extreme situations.

The Congress further alleged that internal instructions existed to remove voters from backward, Dalit and marginalised communities and those seen as Opposition supporters, claiming that SIR had become the instrument for undermining democracy.

Amid the political row, Congress claimed that a total of 16 BLOs have died in 19 days across different states, either by suicide or sudden health collapse, allegedly linked to coercive work conditions under the SIR exercise.