The Rajya Sabha concluded the discussion on electoral reforms on Tuesday (December 16, 2025), with the Leader of the House and Union Minister J.P. Nadda defending the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and urging the Opposition to cooperate with electoral reforms as they are essential for democracy. The Opposition’s response was spearheaded by All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O’Brien, who said the SIR seeks to “divide, distract and deflect”.
The Opposition Congress had misled the people of the country by creating a “false narrative” on the SIR, Mr. Nadda said in his concluding remarks. The Congress had hurt national sentiments by questioning the Election Commission of India (ECI) in order to hide its (the Congress’s) electoral failures, he alleged. “Instead of blaming the Election Commission and electoral process, the Congress should find the actual reason for its successive defeats in elections,” Mr. Nadda said.
Election Commission publishes draft electoral rolls for three States and two UTs
No infiltrators would be included in the voter lists, or vote in elections, the Minister said. “The SIR falls within the Constitutional powers of the EC and it is the Commission’s duty to periodically purify and rectify the electoral rolls to ensure no eligible voter is excluded from the list, and no ineligible voter is included. In the past four months, an attempt has been made to create an atmosphere in the country regarding the SIR... as if some rigging is taking place...The [Bihar] election results that have come in must surely trouble you (the Congress). You are applying the medicine somewhere, but the disease is somewhere else. You will have to find your own disease,” Mr. Nadda said.
