Smriti Irani Leads The Charge As BJP Accuses Congress of Attacking Constitutional Institutions

BJP leader Smriti Irani challenged the demand to restore 133 million names, arguing that voter-roll revision identified deceased, relocated and duplicate electors

File Photo: @smritiirani on X

The Bharatiya Janata Party's national general secretary Smriti Irani on Tuesday accused the Congress of attacking India’s Election Commission rather than examining its electoral defeats. This comes as she mounts the ruling party’s principal response to opposition demands for the removal of the country’s chief election official.

Irani, a former Union Minister, was responding to a resolution adopted by the Congress Working Committee earlier in the day demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the suspension of the nationwide Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and the restoration of 13.3 crore, or 133 million, names that the party said had been removed.

She rejected the Congress’s contention that the revision amounted to mass disenfranchisement, and argued that the opposition party’s demand would restore entries belonging to deceased people and voters registered more than once.

“If a name on the electoral roll is a duplicate, or if it belongs to a deceased person, why does the Congress want it restored?” Irani asked.

The Congress has not argued that deceased or duplicate entries should remain on the rolls. Its resolution alleges that the revision has arbitrarily removed legitimate voters and placed the burden on citizens to prove their eligibility. The central dispute is not whether inaccurate entries should be deleted but whether the revision correctly distinguished invalid records from eligible voters.

The Election Commission says the exercise is intended to remove the names of deceased people, those who have moved and duplicate registrants while confirming the eligibility of existing electors. Approximately 130 million names were left out of initial draft rolls during the nationwide verification, according to figures reported during the controversy. Opposition parties contend that cumbersome verification and appeal procedures have placed legitimate voters at risk of exclusion.

Citing a September 26 response from the Commission, Irani said booth-level officers would visit people issued notices and collect supporting documents from their homes. The Commission recently announced home collection of documents and extended final-verification deadlines in some states. 

The Congress leadership is leaving no stone unturned in undermining India’s constitutional institutions.

Today, the Congress leadership said that its workers were glorified through the Election Commission’s mechanisms in order to bring the Election Commission under scrutiny.… pic.twitter.com/WUVgPRBXbw

— BJP (@BJP4India) September 29, 2026

Irani further questioned whether the Congress considered the Election Commission credible in states not governed by the BJP, naming Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala and Karnataka. She asked whether the party was giving the Commission a “clean chit” in those states while challenging it elsewhere.

The Congress’s current allegations concern the Commission’s nationwide revision procedures and decision-making at its headquarters. The political confrontation intensified after an investigation by The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had placed objections on record on at least 14 occasions over ten months. 

The Election Commission has denied that the objections demonstrate a split over its principal decisions. It said differences in observations were a normal part of institutional deliberation and maintained that its major decisions, including those authorising the revision, were unanimous.

The Commission has also announced changes to its internal procedures, including an expert-led review of its electoral-roll software, scrutiny of new information-technology modules by a committee of officers and advance circulation of meeting agendas.

Irani presented the controversy as part of a broader Congress campaign to discredit constitutional institutions after failing to win sufficient public support. She recalled a 2019 statement that she attributed to the then Congress president about damaging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image and argued that political attacks on the prime minister should not become attacks on India’s democratic institutions. She described the Election Commission as central to the strength and standing of Indian democracy.

The BJP leader also criticised the Congress for invoking the 1929 Lahore session of the party, turning instead to its colonial-era origins. She referred to the role of retired British civil servant Allan Octavian Hume in establishing the Congress and alleged that the organisation was created to protect the British Empire. 

The Congress Working Committee said earlier on Tuesday that the investigation had vindicated opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of electoral-roll manipulation. It announced that its campaign would continue through Parliament, the courts and public protests, while demanding disclosure of changes made during the revision.

Irani said those allegations reflected political frustration rather than evidence of institutional wrongdoing. This has left the BJP and the principal opposition party sharply divided over whether the revision represents legitimate maintenance of India’s voter lists or a threat to eligible citizens’ voting rights.

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