Voting rights for genuine voters, not infiltrators: Sandeep Singh

Basic Education Minister speaks at Atal Smriti Conference and Voter Revision Campaign workshop held at the Annexy Building in Atrauli

Atrauli, December 2025 : Addressing the Atal Smriti Sammelan and the Voter Revision Campaign (SIR) workshop organized at the Annexy Building in Atrauli, Basic Education Minister Sandeep Singh said that Atal ji’s thoughts, values, and democratic conduct continue to serve as a guiding force for Indian politics even today. He said that Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji and Babuji, the late Kalyan Singh, together nurtured the banyan tree of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Both leaders worked for organization and struggle during a time when the party’s public support was limited and staying firm on principles was the biggest challenge. He said that Atal ji and Kalyan Singh ji made service and principles, not power, the foundation of politics, due to which the party was established as a strong organization.

Recalling the democratic values, dialogue, dignity, and pure public participation of Bharat Ratna and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the minister clearly stated that the strength of democracy is possible only through a pure voter list. He said that the objective of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is not to deprive any eligible citizen of voting rights, but to ensure the identification of genuine voters, so that unconstitutional situations such as voting by external infiltrators can be effectively prevented.

The minister said that Atal Bihari Vajpayee considered democracy not merely a process of voting, but a system of moral responsibility and public trust. In line with this ideology, it is necessary today to ensure the purity of the voter list. He said that through SIR, the Election Commission is identifying genuine voters, but the opposition is trying to obstruct this constitutional process and mislead the public.

He alleged that the opposition has spread false propaganda that SIR is a campaign to remove voters’ names from the list or add incorrect names, whereas the reality is that this process is only meant to protect the rights of eligible voters. Sandeep Singh said that every political party deployed its workers internally in this process, but publicly attempted to spread confusion.

The Basic Education Minister clearly stated that voting by external infiltrators cannot be accepted under any circumstances and is also against the basic spirit of the Constitution. He informed that under SIR, members of families residing here before the year 2003 are being granted voting rights, while in cases where individuals had no family base here prior to that, the decision on whether they are eligible to vote will be taken through a lawful process.

He said that despite this, the opposition is accusing the BJP of depriving common people of their voting rights, which is completely baseless and misleading. The minister said that a fault less voter list is the foundation of fair elections and a strong democracy, and in this direction, SIR is a necessary and constitutional step.