Blaming the system for rejection by the people

Indian democracy is a reflection of the world’s largest public will. Here, elections are not just confined to change of power, but a sacred national ritual – where every vote serves as the pulsation of a healthy democratic system. Therefore, the accuracy of the electoral rolls is not only an administrative work of the Election Commission of India (ECI), but also a question of protecting the constitutional spirit of India.

With this basic spirit, the Election Commission launched a massive campaign of ‘Special Intensive Revision’ (SIR) of the electoral rolls from July 1 this year, so that no ineligible person (including infiltrators) is included in the rolls and no eligible citizen is left out. After Bihar, the process is underway in 12 more states. The previous SIR was conducted in the country during 2002-04.

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It is ironic that those political parties and their top leaders who were trying to project themselves as the ‘protectors’ of the Constitution by waving copies of it, are now raising baseless questions on this statutory electoral reform process inside and outside the Parliament. Several petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court against the nationwide SIR by opponents, including opposition parties as well as self-proclaimed “protectors of the Constitution and democracy”. Former Union Minister Kapil Sibal and Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi are representing them as senior advocates.

The top Court has rejected their argument that SIR is an unnecessary process and that the ECI has no authority to conduct it. Moreover, the Court, in its hearing on November 26, also noted that none of the ineligible voters whose names were removed during the SIR in Bihar had filed any objection. The ECI, in the second phase of SIR, covering around 51 crore voters in 1,843 assembly constituencies in 321 districts of 12 states, is reviewing the accuracy of the rolls. As of 3 December, 99 per cent of SIR forms have been distributed and over 93 per cent of them have been digitized.

To ensure a free, fair, and transparent process, the Commission has already held over 4,700 all-party meetings, attended by 28,000 political representatives. The final rolls will be published on 16 February 2026. Those whose names are removed from the list will have full opportunity to file claims and objections within one month. So, what is the point of being nervous about such a transparent process? In fact, first casting aspersion on EVMs and then levelling accusation of ‘vote-chori (vote theft)’ by opponents is nothing but ‘a bad workman blaming his tools’.

The Congress has unsuccessfully tried to blame ‘vote chori’ for its debacles in last year’s Haryana and Maharashtra elections and recently concluded Bihar elections. Of the 61 seats it contested in Bihar, Congress bagged only six receiving just 8.7 per cent votes. It should be remembered that Congress’s vote share drastically dropped to 6 per cent in 2005, that too when the UPA government was at the helm. Will the Congress be able to explain who committed the ‘vote chori’ then? Congress’ performance has been steadily declining for the past three decades in Bihar. In the 1990 assembly elections, it received approximately 24.7 per cent votes, which dropped to 16.2 per cent in 1995, 11 per cent in 2000, a meagre 8.3 per cent when contesting alone in 2010, 6.7 per cent in 2015, and 9.48 per cent in 2020. This decline of the Congress is not just confined to Bihar.

After independence, the Congress ruled the country, directly or indirectly, for 50 years. During this period, Congress lost power in Tamil Nadu (1967), West Bengal (1977), Uttar Pradesh (1989), Gujarat (1990), Maharashtra (1995), Odisha (2000), Goa (2012), and Delhi (2013) and has not been able to return to power on its own. In Delhi, it even failed to open its account in the 2015, 2020 and 2025 elections. Its vote share in the Maharashtra assembly elections has dropped from 21 per cent in 2009 to a mere 12 per cent in 2024. Will this steady erosion – or in the words of the Congress leadership, ‘match-fixing’ and ‘vote chori’ – also be blamed on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ECI? The last four Lok Sabha elections clearly underscore India’s changing political landscape. In 2009, the BJP bagged 18.8 per cent votes and 116 seats.

In 2014, the same BJP surged to 282 seats with 31 per cent votes in its kitty. On the contrary, the Congress slipped from 206 to 44 seats with its vote share dropping from 28.5 per cent to 19.3 per cent. During both elections, the Congress-led UPA government was in power at the Centre. Public support for the BJP surged further in 2019 and the party secured a majority again with increased vote share (37.3 per cent) and seats (303). The party, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, fought the 2024 Lok Sabha elections amid anti-incumbency, opposition consolidation, plots by anti-India forces, and negative propaganda. It witnessed a drop in its seats (240) and vote share (36.5 per cent), but managed to form the government.

It is also worth noting that during the last 11 years of the Modi government at the Centre, opposition parties also won elections in many states. These mainly include Trinamool in West Bengal, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in Jharkhand, Congress in Karnataka and Himachal, National Conference in Jammu & Kashmir and the Left in Kerala, etc. Even in the 70-member Delhi assembly elections, AAP won 67 seats in 2015 and 62 in 2020 and it also won 80 per cent of the seats in Punjab in 2022. Would these results have been possible if the Election Commission had been “biased” toward one party? In fact, most of the opposition, including the Congress leadership, have lost the ability to see and understand their core problem.

Arrogance and a sense of dynastic entitlement have deprived them of introspection. They are living in a fantasy, completely disconnected from reality, and are unnecessarily blaming Prime Minister Modi and the Commission for ‘vote chori’ for every electoral debacle. Another bitter truth is that if for some reason voters get disillusioned with the BJP, they look for other alternatives instead of the main opposition, the Congress. In fact, most of the opposition parties – SP, RJD, Trinamool, DMK, NCP, AAP – have strengthened their roots by making inroads into the political base of the Congress. The truth is that when the ‘people’, i.e. the voters, repeatedly reject the Congress, then as part of an organised political strategy, the ‘system’ – institutions like the Election Commission – are put in the dock. The only objective is to somehow maintain its declining political relevance amidst the alienation from the public, even if it means damaging the credibility of the country’s constitutional institutions.

(The writer is the author of ‘Tryst with Ayodhya: Decolonization of India’ and ‘The Illusion of Narrative’. He can be reached at punjbalbir@gmail.com)