Delimitation, quota to proceed despite SIR stir: Sanjay Kumar

Hyderabad: Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Saturday, October 31, said the NDA government would go ahead with delimitation, the NRC and 33 per cent reservation for women, despite the Opposition’s agitation against the SIR of electoral rolls.

Alleging that the Congress was targeting constitutional institutions, he said the party had attacked the Election Commission, questioned Operation Mahadev, which was launched after the Pahalgam terror attack, and made critical remarks against the Supreme Court.

On the Congress’s demand for elections using ballot papers, he said BJP MLAs and MPs from Telangana were ready to seek re-election on ballot papers in the next Assembly polls. He asked Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to say whether the Congress was ready to do the same in the state.

“I am saying this without the permission of our leadership. I will persuade our central leadership,” he told reporters here.

‘SIR will continue, NRC will also be implemented’

He said the Congress’s decline began long ago, even though it was now alleging that the BJP was trying to win elections through Special Intensive Revision.

Charging that the Congress, the Communists, the AAP and the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) were trying to create an environment similar to the recent unrest in European countries, he said such tricks would not succeed as long as Narendra Modi was Prime Minister.

“There is no question of getting scared. SIR will continue. The National Register of Citizens will be implemented. We will provide 33 per cent reservation to women and extend opportunities to them in legislatures. We will take up the delimitation process. The ‘Indi’ alliance under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership will witness a great scene after these are implemented,” the Union Minister of State (Home) said.

The Congress takes credit for securing independence, he said, but asked how it could join hands with people like AISA president Neha Bora and Abhijeet Dipke. He cited American singer Mary Millen’s allegation that the CJP was “funded by donors” in the US and reports of Neha Bora praising the Gen Z movement in Bangladesh.

‘Congress has been out of power for decades’

Asserting that the Congress’s electoral decline did not begin with the ongoing SIR, he said the party had been out of power for 60 years in Tamil Nadu, 50 years in West Bengal, 37 years in Uttar Pradesh, 36 years in Bihar, 34 years in Tripura, 26 years in Odisha and Jharkhand, 23 years in Madhya Pradesh and Nagaland, 14 years in Goa, and 12 years in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra, among other states.

It has not been in power in Sikkim since the state was formed, he said.

“The people of this country want a Congress-mukt Bharat. You (Congress) have not declined because of SIR. Its decline started much earlier. The Congress lost its address in many states,” he said.

He added that the Congress and the TVK had won in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, respectively, after the present SIR began.

‘EVMs were introduced by Rajiv Gandhi’

Dismissing the Congress’s allegations against EVMs, he said they were introduced by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and that the Congress had won elections when the machines were used.

Accusing the Congress of making the Election Commission its “pocket organisation” in the past, he said Ashok Kumar Sen, brother of the first Chief Election Commissioner Sukumar Sen, was made a minister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s government. Former CEC T N Seshan contested Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket, and another former CEC, M S Gill, served as a minister in the UPA government, he said.

Hitting out at the Congress government in Telangana, he said CM Reddy, ministers and other leaders were camping in Delhi for the party’s dharna at Ramlila Maidan on November 1, though the state was reeling under drought and acute water shortage.

Sanjay Kumar also released a booklet to counter what he called the “disinformation” spread by the Congress and other opposition parties against SIR.

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