Chirag slams Opposition parties over SIR controversy
Union Minister Chirag Paswan on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Congress and other Opposition parties, saying they are questioning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to preempt excuses for future election defeats.
The opposition parties are fast losing their popular mandate because they are not raising people’s issues, the LJP (Ram Vilas) leader said, highlighting the NDA’s thumping win in recent Bihar Assembly elections.
Asked about a social media post by SP leader Akhilesh Yadav on the SIR issue, Paswan said, “Citizenship is not being revoked. They (opposition parties) are losing their support base and popular mandate, and that is what is bothering them.”
Yadav said that the BJP government could bring “draconian laws” using voter lists as a basis to deny citizens various rights and entitlements. The minister was speaking on the sidelines of the Indusfood 2026 show at Greater Noida. The three-day show is being organised by the Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI). Aswan, who is Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, said the opposition parties made such a hue and cry about the SIR process just before the Bihar election.
The historic mandate in the Bihar elections reflects that opposition parties will continue to lose polls till they raise people’s issues, he added. He said the opposition parties have also suffered defeat in elections due to personal attacks on the popular Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Paswan said the SIR has been done earlier also with the same process, and the only thing new is the use of technology. The questioning of the SIR again and again by the opposition parties reflects that they are already preparing excuses for election defeats, he said.
The Congress had made the SIR the key issue in the Bihar polls to attack the ruling NDA.
On the SIR issue, Yadav claimed that the deletion of names from voter lists could be used to question citizens’ access to ration cards, government schemes, caste certificates, reservations, bank accounts, property records, PAN cards, Ayushman cards, essential supplies, and even ownership of land and houses.
