New Delhi: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during a debate in the Lok Sabha on election reforms. He rejected Gandhi’s allegations of election-related irregularities and said the Congress had a long record of controlling institutions linked to polls. He added that electronic voting machines were first introduced under former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to address irregularities in voting.
Dubey said Congress and regional parties with what he called pro-Muslim politics opposed the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls. He cited data from the 2011 Census and pointed to districts in West Bengal and Jharkhand where he claimed the Muslim population rose at a pace higher than national trends. He linked this to suspected infiltration from Bangladesh and said the clean-up exercise aimed to update rolls affected by migration and rapid changes in urban areas.
Law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said special revisions of electoral rolls had taken place several times since 1952. He said the current exercise sought to improve accuracy. Meghwal accused the Congress of what he called vote theft since the first general elections and referred to the defeat of B R Ambedkar. He said the Modi government followed a 2023 Supreme Court ruling on the appointment of election commissioners and did not alter the law on the process.
Dubey referred to past chiefs of the Election Commission. He said former CEC T N Sheshan later contested against BJP leader L K Advani on a Congress ticket and that former CEC M S Gill became a minister in the Manmohan Singh government. He said old parliamentary committees had backed electoral reforms, including voting machines and lowering the voting age to 18.
