BJP Nagaland president Benjamin Yepthomi challenges Rahul Gandhi and Congress to produce evidence backing allegations against the ECI, EVMs and SIR.
DIMAPUR — BJP Nagaland State president Benjamin Yepthomi on Monday challenged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party to produce concrete evidence to support their allegations against the Election Commission of India (ECI), the electoral process, EVMs and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Addressing media persons at his residence, Yepthomi referred to the ECI’s joint statement issued on September 26, saying it had clarified several issues being raised over the SIR process.
He said the ECI had stated that the SIR order and subsequent schedules were approved unanimously by the full Commission and noted that the Supreme Court had upheld the SIR order on May 27.
He also said the ECI clarified that a communication to the Cabinet Secretary concerned the functioning of an officer on deputation and was not related to any policy matter concerning the SIR or the Commission’s IT division.
“When the constitutional authority responsible for conducting elections has placed the facts on record, political debate should also be based on those facts,” Yepthomi said.
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On allegations of “vote chori” and EVM manipulation, he asked the Congress to produce evidence, saying serious allegations against India’s democratic institutions could not themselves constitute proof.
Referring to Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan, Yepthomi claimed that Congress leaders in Kerala had previously acknowledged that SIR had helped remove proxy or ineligible voters and questioned why Rahul Gandhi was opposing the exercise now.
He also questioned the Congress’ position on EVMs, asking why they were not questioned when the party won elections in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala, but became an issue when the BJP won in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Haryana.
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Yepthomi cited the ECI’s explanations on EVMs and VVPAT safeguards and referred to the Supreme Court’s April 2024 judgment, which examined challenges concerning the systems and noted safeguards including sealing and strongroom security, with candidates or their representatives allowed to participate in the process.
“If there is concrete evidence of manipulation, Rahul Gandhi should produce it, file it, prove it, and let the law decide,” he said.
Yepthomi said aspiring to become Prime Minister was Rahul Gandhi’s democratic right, but political ambition should not weaken public faith in democratic institutions.
He added that governments and political parties would change, but “India and its democracy must remain strong”.
On reports of 14 objections being raised within 10 months, Yepthomi said differences within the Election Commission were part of democratic functioning and that the matters were resolved through consultation, resulting in decisions being taken by consensus.
Regarding concerns over changes to Form 6, he said enumerators had collected additional information during door-to-door verification to establish residency and identify ineligible entries, while asserting that there had been no change to the statutory framework of the form.
Responding to allegations that around 13 crore genuine voters had been deleted during the SIR exercise, Yepthomi said duplicate and proxy voting should be eliminated and urged all political parties and citizens to support the SIR.
He also claimed that duplicate and fake entries existed in Nagaland’s electoral rolls and called for efforts to rectify them.
Asked whether the Nagaland BJP was prepared to conduct an independent booth-level audit to identify disputed deletions, proxy voters and migrated voters before publication of the final electoral roll, he said the party already had dedicated SIR committees at the state and district levels.
The BJP state general secretary, meanwhile, said the party was responding because allegations against the ECI indirectly or directly implicated the BJP in alleged manipulation of the electoral system, despite the ECI being an independent constitutional body.
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