‘Delete 20,000-25,000 votes, make own MLA’: Punjab BJP’s Renu Kashyap sparks major political row

Punjab BJP state secretary Renu Kashyap landed herself in a major controversy after a viral video showed her telling party workers to use the ongoing voter revision drive to get 20,000 to 25,000 votes removed to help elect their own MLA.

Kashyap contested the 2022 Assembly elections in Punjab on a BJP ticket from the Dina Nagar seat.

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The video, which is gaining significant attention across social media, was reportedly recorded by a BJP worker during a closed-door meeting in Dinanagar on July 2.

Since then, Opposition leaders have widely shared the clip on WhatsApp and other platforms. The row comes at a time when the state is conducting a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive, which started on June 25 with booth level officers verifying voter lists door-to-door.

“Renu Kashyap’s reported statement about using the SIR process to remove 20,000–25,000 votes to benefit the BJP is deeply disturbing and raises serious questions about the integrity of the electoral process. No matter how hard the BJP tries, Congress will not allow even a single genuine vote to be taken away. Every eligible voter has a constitutional right to vote, and we will stand guard to protect that right. The Election Commission must immediately examine these reported remarks and ensure that the electoral process remains free, fair, and impartial,” Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring wrote on X.

Kashyap defended her remarks on Tuesday, claiming that rivals and troublemakers had cropped and manipulated the video to target her.

“This was not a public speech. I was talking to our own party workers in a private meeting. The whole point was to explain how voter registration works. When I spoke about deleting votes, I only meant removing fake, duplicate, or illegal entries that violate election rules,” Kashyap said.

She dismissed the claim about removing 20,000 to 25,000 genuine votes, calling the figures highly exaggerated.

“With modern technology and AI, there is always a huge risk of videos being edited, cut, and tampered with. We will definitely get this video investigated to find out who is behind this,” Kashyap added.

Meanwhile, the local administration has stepped in. Dinanagar SDM Gagandeep Singh said they are looking into the matter to see if the video has been tampered with. The administration has also sent a notice to Kashyap, asking for her official response.

“We are checking the authenticity of the video. Even though we have not received any written complaint so far, we have taken action on our own to investigate the matter. We will decide on the next legal steps once we get all the facts,” Singh said.