‘Strange hypocrisy’: In Karnataka, BJP flags SIR concerns, Congress fires back

4 min readBengaluruJul 7, 2026 08:38 PM IST

The Congress has been among the strongest critics of the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls since the exercise first began in Bihar about two years ago. Perhaps for the first time, the BJP has now cried foul over the process in Congress-ruled Karnataka.

For the second time in two days since the exercise started on June 30, the BJP and its NDA ally, the JD(S), have approached the EC, alleging irregularities in the ongoing SIR.

In a complaint to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the coalition alleged that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) “belonging to a particular religion” were being deployed in minority-dominated areas, raising “serious concerns about the fairness and impartiality of the process”.

The memorandum, signed by Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi of the BJP and H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S), Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly R Ashoka, among others, came a day after the alliance submitted a similar complaint to Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V Anbukumar.

The coalition partners alleged that enumeration forms were being filled at “community halls, mosques and other residences of BLOs”, which they claimed violated the EC guidelines. It also questioned the pace of the exercise. They also claimed that the manner in which BLOs were conducting the SIR was “defeating the very purpose of the revision” and could result in “an unsustainable and unreliable electoral roll”.

The alliance had begun raising objections soon after the exercise commenced. On July 2, Kumaraswamy alleged that thousands of “fraudulent voters”, including illegal Bangladeshi migrants, were being provided fabricated documents through the direct influence of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

Referring to the distribution of enumeration forms at a community hall in a minority-dominated locality in Bengaluru South, he alleged it was “a systematic conspiracy” to enable illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators to obtain documents that would eventually help them secure voting rights.

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Joshi, too, alleged on Monday that the state government was undermining the objective of the exercise by facilitating the inclusion of illegal immigrants. “There is a conspiracy to include Bangladeshis who fled West Bengal after the SIR was conducted there,” he claimed.

Congress hits back

The Congress dismissed the allegations as “strange hypocrisy”. In a social media post, AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala said the party welcomed the BJP-JD(S)’s Opposition to the SIR and challenged them to acknowledge that similar exercises conducted before Assembly elections in Bihar, West Bengal and Assam were also wrong.

He alleged that the SIR had led to the deletion of 47 lakh names in Bihar, 84 lakh in West Bengal and 11 lakh in Assam, and asked whether the BJP would then accept that the election results in those states should be set aside. Calling the SIR “anti-democratic” and “an assault on democracy and the Constitution”, Surjewala demanded that the exercise be scrapped across the country.

Even before the revision began, the Congress government had urged residents to cooperate with the process. Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had said inclusion in the electoral rolls was important as the state’s guarantee schemes would be linked to the voter list. The government also announced that it would issue permanent residence certificates, one of the 11 documents accepted by the EC for inclusion in the electoral rolls.

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Responding to the BJP-JD(S) complaint on Monday, Shivakumar said that while the Congress opposed the SIR, the state government was only creating awareness to help people safeguard their voting rights. “This is a process of the EC, and there is no government interference in it. But the SIR is a conspiracy by the Opposition to snatch away the voting rights of the poor and minorities,” he said.

As a part of the exercise, BLOs will conduct door-to-door distribution and verification of enumeration forms until July 29. The draft electoral roll will be published on August 5, followed by a period for claims and objections, while the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on October 7.

According to the EC, as of Tuesday, 3.96 crore enumeration forms had been distributed across 59,050 polling stations in Karnataka. Ahead of the revision, the state had 5.54 crore registered electors.