BJP faults Opposition’s letter to CJI on Special Intensive Revision

State BJP president N. Ramchander Rao criticized the Congress and other Opposition parties for writing to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) about the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), terming it a “bad precedent” and suggesting that they should have filed a writ petition instead.

“It is not appropriate to drag the CJI into the matter through a letter. An ordinary person who cannot afford court fees can write a letter which can be treated as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), but it is surprising that senior lawyers, including Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, are involved in this,” he said during an informal interaction with the media at the party’s State office on Wednesday.

Mr. Rao maintained that the implementation of SIR was not advantageous for the BJP. “Bench Level Civil Servants are State government employees. Questioning them implies lack of confidence in one’s own administration,” he said, adding that there were numerous judicial decisions allowing citizens to establish their citizenship through various documents.

He appealed to residents of Hyderabad and the rest of Telangana to actively participate in the SIR process by submitting copies of any of the 12 approved documents, including Aadhaar and passport. But he acknowledged concerns about the “gray area” of individuals who hold multiple ID cards but not a single definitive proof of citizenship.

The BJP leader argued that documents like passports and Aadhaar cards are issued only after necessary verification and hence can be used in the SIR application. He also noted that governments have not yet implemented a universal ID card that would definitively establish citizenship, similar to social security systems in the United States or Europe. He said even non-citizens can get an Indian passport under certain conditions.

SIR aims not only to eliminate duplicate, fake and deceased voters but also to prevent multiple voting. Citing West Bengal as an example, he said 28 lakh voters were barred and around 91 lakh names were removed without discussion while their cases were under Supreme Court scrutiny. “Cleaning voter lists has contributed to increased voter turnout,” the BJP chief said.

Mr. Rao termed national leader Nitin Nabin’s recent three-day visit as “successful” and noted that his experience in helping the BJP gain strength in Chhattisgarh and Sikkim would help the party’s growth in Telangana. Reflecting on his first year as the State chief, Mr Rao described it as “exciting and challenging” and highlighted his outreach across districts and efforts to connect with party workers while criticizing the State government.

He also criticized Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, accusing him of making “derogatory” remarks about the BJP president “out of political arrogance”. The BJP leader added that he (CM) will soon be shown the exit door by people as his behavior is similar to BRS leaders when they were in power.