Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy on Tuesday defended the Election Commission of India’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, questioning whether it was wrong to remove the names of “deceased persons, illegal immigrants and other ineligible voters” from the rolls.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Mr. Reddy said the Congress government in Telangana was implementing the voter-roll revision exercise and that any mistakes found during the process should be corrected through proper channels.
“If there are errors, evidence must be presented. It is the responsibility of all stakeholders to identify and rectify them,” he said. He pointed out that the Congress party has Booth Level Agents (BLAs) at polling stations across the country and argued that they have adequate opportunities to flag and rectify instances where eligible voters may have been wrongly removed.
The BJP leader claimed that the revision exercise had identified nearly 2.8 crore deceased voters, while about 6.3 crore people had migrated from their original places of residence, and further alleged that around one crore voters were “registered in two places”, raising concerns about duplicate entries in electoral rolls.
He also accused Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of spreading misinformation by claiming that the voter-roll revision exercise was aimed at removing the names of poor people, Adivasis, Dalits and minorities. It is an attempt to create divisions based on caste, religion, language and economic status, he said.
He alleged that the Chief Minister and all Ministers are camping in the capital, instead of focusing on the challenges faced by the farmers due to water shortage and power cuts being faced by the industry and the public.
Published – October 13, 2026 07:23 pm IST
