Top vote theft was in 1947 when CWC backed Patel but Nehru became PM: BJP MP in Lok Sabha

The debate on electoral reforms in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday quickly morphed into a BJP versus Congress showdown, with speakers from both sides trading sharp barbs over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls by the Election Commission.

After Congress leader Manish Tewari opened the discussion by accusing the Election Commission of bias, unfairness, and misuse of the SIR process, BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal hit back, alleging that it was the Congress that had a historic record of “stealing votes.”

Jaiswal, BJP MP from Paschim Champaran in Bihar — where the first SIR was recently conducted and the BJP-led NDA swept the elections — claimed the “biggest vote theft” occurred in 1946, when a majority of Provincial Congress Committees voted for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to become Congress chief and eventually the country’s first Prime Minister, but Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister instead.

He was responding to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s repeated claims that the Election Commission was colluding to help the BJP win state after state.

“The Opposition is not ready to acknowledge the real reasons for their loss in Bihar. They will not introspect. They will blame external factors and SIR. This is a great situation for us,” Jaiswal said.

He accused Rahul Gandhi of spending “20 days in tourism in Bihar” during the elections while ignoring issues that had accumulated over two decades of NDA rule in the state.

“He kept talking about SIR and people were confused. They were asking whose votes had been stolen,” Jaiswal said.

He said that over 99.8% houses were visited by Booth Level Officers and forms filled to ensure all eligible voters remained on the lists. “But no Bangladeshi or Rohingya should remain on the voter rolls. They must and will all be removed,” Jaiswal added, speaking after Tewari called for SIR to be stopped.

Jaiswal said that the “biggest voter theft” happened in 1947 when all Congress committees were with Patel and Nehru was made PM.

“Another theft happened when Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency in 1975; in 1987 booths were captured by NC and Congress in Jammu and Kashmir which was thrown into the throes of terrorism. In 1991, after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, the EC in an unprecedented move cancelled the entire General Election, whereas the norm is to suspend polls where a candidate has died.

“In 1997, the Congress started the practice of booth capturing from Bihar's Begusarai,” Jaiswal said recalling the mass murders that once marked Bihar elections, in contrast to the most recent election, which was incident-free and did not require even a single repoll.

The BJP leader attacked the Congress-led INDIA bloc of opposing SIR to appease Muslims.

“Bihar SIR showed that 35 lakh people had not filled Form 6. They could be Bangladeshis and Rohingyas. INDI bloc leaders are actually worried that if Bihar has 35 lakh potential infiltrators, then how many would Bengal have?” Jaiswal said.

He said the country did not belong to Bangladeshis and Rohingyas. “We will remove them from India,” he said, accusing the ruling TMC in Bengal of being a mute spectator to the atrocities against Hindus in the state.

He said after Bihar, the BJP will win Bengal next year.

Arguing in favour of the SIR exercise, Jaiswal cited B R Ambedkar, saying that Ambedkar had described a clean electoral roll as the foundation of a free and fair election.

He further said that “free-fall budgeting” should end, and questioned why Manish Tewari did not address how Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav were able to promise one government job per family during the Bihar elections.

“Under which rule did Rahul and Tejashwi promise that? Where was the budget?” the BJP leader asked, while backing simultaneous elections, which he said would help save thousands of crores.

"That One Nation, One Election will help the BJP is a myth. If anyone will lose big from ONOE it will be the BJP. But we are taught that the nation comes first,” Jaiswal added.