Mumbai, Oct 9 (IANS) Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, on Friday delivered a scathing rebuttal to the Congress party as high-octane protests led by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi against the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process brought central Delhi to a standstill.
Taking to social media, CM Fadnavis released archival parliamentary footage of former Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal speaking in official support of the SIR framework during the Congress-led UPA tenure.
The clip—which has rapidly gone viral—directly counters the Opposition’s current claims that the voter roll revision is a “conspiracy” or an unconstitutional procedure. The Opposition parties have alleged that over 13 crore names have allegedly been left out in the draft poll rolls and has been protesting against it.
In his direct hit at the Congress leadership, CM Fadnavis highlighted the stark contrast between the party’s historic stance and its current street demonstrations.
“Congress is busy shouting against SIR from every possible stage, only to have its own former Law Minister Kapil Sibal’s words come back to expose the drama. The Parliament record doesn’t change with political convenience. Perhaps Congress should first check their own history before manufacturing new conspiracy theories. Sometimes, the best rebuttal comes from your own party’s past!”
CM Fadnavis captioned the video as ‘Congress’ double standards’, urging citizens to listen to official parliamentary proceedings from the UPA era and judge who is telling the truth.
The video shared by the Chief Minister shows then-Law Minister Kapil Sibal explaining the three precise categories under which the SIR process removes or updates names on the voter list. “Deletion of duplicate entries take place when a voter shifts from one constituency to another, followed by seamless re-registration at the new address. Also during updating old electoral rolls during boundary reorganisations. There will be routine deletion of names of deceased individuals upon verification,” said the former law minister in the video.
In the footage, Sibal emphasised that no legitimate voter could be barred by registration officers, noting that millions of citizens routinely applied for inclusion under established statutory provisions.
The video comes at a sensitive moment as Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lead sustained street demonstrations demanding the halting of the SIR process and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over what they claim is the disenfranchisement of 13 crore people during the recent SIR process.
The protests near Jantar Mantar and Election Commission headquarters have seen tense scuffles with law enforcement, leading to police complaints and political trade-offs.
BJP leaders have rallied around CM Fadnavis’s statement, asserting that the Opposition is attempting to manufacture a non-existent controversy over a standard voter roll hygiene drive that their own government previously endorsed and defended on the floor of Parliament.
The CM’s comments come a day after the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Maharashtra, in a major push to ensure maximum voter participation and clean electoral rolls, has launched targeted registration drives and door-to-door verification campaigns across the state.
Operating under the guidelines of the ECI, election authorities have committed to ensuring that no eligible citizen is left off the electoral roll and no ineligible entries remain. The extensive outreach forms a crucial leg of the ongoing SIR process.
Special voter registration camps have been conducted across all colleges and universities in Maharashtra from October 5 to October 9. Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are deployed at campus sites to assist eligible students with completing application forms and to resolve queries regarding the SIR workflow, said the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Maharashtra release.
BLOs are conducting home visits to identify eligible citizens missing from the Draft Electoral Roll and collect Form 6 following verification. For residents unavailable during home visits, special voter registration camps will be held at all designated polling stations on October 10 and October 11, 2026.
Citizens whose names appear on the list of absent or migrated voters (compiled during house-to-house enumeration) can apply for re-enrolment or correction. The official list of absent/shifted voters has been published online at ceoelection.maharashtra.gov.in for public verification.
–IANS
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