Besides preparing a “fact sheet” on the EC affair – from the issue of dissent among the Election Commissioners (ECs) to data on modifications to the country’s voter lists – the BJP dispensation has attempted to take on alleged “anarchy in the national capital” politically, keeping its guns trained on the Opposition parties, particularly the Congress, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
To counter protests over mass deletions of voters due to the SIR, the BJP has also sought to subtly pivot to its plank of “ghuspaithiyas” or infiltrators and “demographic change”.
Institutional moves
In the wake of The Indian Express investigation, the EC directed 20 states and Union Territories where the SIR has been completed, to run a “special drive” to enrol voters “left out” of the rolls. The Indian Express on September 23 reported that ECs Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record, at least 14 times in 10 months, to SIR-related decisions taken without their knowledge and glaring gaps in processes.
Subsequently, the poll panel has come up with regular updates on the numbers of voters added back to the rolls by the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) in states where the SIR claims and objections period is continuing.
On Monday, the Delhi CEO posted on X a message regarding the 2026 SIR which led to deletions in the city’s draft voter list of about 47.7 lakh of 1.45 crore voters. It said: “About 33 lakh entries in Delhi voter list were under Logical Discrepancy/Unmapped. We had started a proactive campaign to resolve these issues. By now around 20 lakh cases out of 33 lakh have been resolved. If any person has any grievance, please feel free to contact any of the 14,947 BLOs, 902 AEROs, 70 EROs, 13 DEOs or the CEO. No eligible voter will be excluded from the voter list.”
In similar posts, the CEOs of states which saw large-scale deletions under the SIR, such as West Bengal and Bihar, reiterated that eligible voters would not be “left behind”. The Bengal CEO stated that 24 Deputy Election Officers (DEOs) of the state had started “a proactive campaign” in this regard. The Bihar CEO said its 38 DEOs were undertaking the same task and that over 90,000 special camps would be held for the purpose.
Days after a series of protests and the clampdown by the police and security personnel left New Delhi paralysed, on Monday, based on the recommendations of a committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar issued a standing order, denotifying Jantar Mantar as a designated site for protests and replaced it with three new sites – Ramlila Maidan in central Delhi, Burari ground in north Delhi and CBD ground in east Delhi – ostensibly to minimise “inconvenience” to citizens.
Outreach to Gen Z
During the CJP’s June-July agitation at Jantar Mantar over the NEET paper leak, which led to the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the Centre had engaged with the former, with Union Ministers J P Nadda and Jitendra Singh holding multiple rounds of talks with CJP leaders Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav Das, achieving a breakthrough that ended the protest.
Subsequently, the Narendra Modi government passed a stringent law against paper leaks in Parliament, revamped the National Testing Agency (NTA) and set up a high-powered task force on exam reforms led by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.
Referring to the current Delhi standoff, BJP sources said, “The law of the land is clear and applicable to all. And the government is merely implementing its provisions – everything must take place as per procedure, including street protests and the question of the CEC’s removal, which can only happen through impeachment.”
A party source said: “While the EC has taken steps to clear the air over the SIR issue, the government has shown restraint in getting the youth protesters dispersed from the highly-sensitive New Delhi area without resorting to any criminal or penal action, balancing its duty to maintain law and order with ensuring people’s right to hold protest.”
“If the Modi government were really against people’s fundamental right to protest, it would not have notified venues such as Ramlila Maidan as designated protests sites so that the larger public do not face harassment due to a section of people venting their frustrations on the streets,” the source said.
