BJP to take SIR counter-offensive to masses before polls

NEW DELHI: BJP will launch a campaign to take its counter-offensive against opposition's ongoing stir over Election Commission's SIR to the masses, as the governing party seeks to demolish its rivals' arguments in the run up to the next round of assembly polls, including in UP.BJP president Nitin Nabin is expected to finalise the details of the exercise in the coming days.With home minister Amit Shah unfurling a sharp attack on opposition, especially Rahul Gandhi, by framing his campaign as a cover to hide his repeated failures to lead Congress to victory in polls and to shield infiltrators from being weeded out of electoral rolls, BJP's public outreach is expected to broadly push this argument coupled with detailed rebuttal to critical points being made its opponents.Sources said the view within BJP is that opposition may have been able to make a public spectacle of its strident protests in the heart of the national capital but its political dividends will not be much, noting the opposition's or Cockroach Janta Party's campaign have hardly seen any resonance in poll-bound states like UP."Media traction should not be confused with popular support. Rahul's vote chori allegation in the Bihar assembly polls in 2025 had drawn wide coverage.

We know what happened in the elections," a BJP functionary said, while emphasising it will be empathic in its countercharge. NDA had pulled off a landslide win in the state.There are enough provisions in place to ensure that all genuine voters make it to the electoral roll, party sources said.

BJP and its allies, anyway, have thrown their weight behind SIR, stressing that the purification of the voters' list is essential to elections.In his first comments on the opposition's stir, Shah had said targeted Rahul, saying, "You and not SIR is responsible for Congress's defeats. Since you emerged as the main leader of Congress and then became its president and the leader of opposition, Congress has continuously lost elections. You should introspect."