Senior BJP leader and former Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Sunday sharply criticised opposition parties for what he described as deliberate attempts to communalise the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Speaking at an awareness programme in Koyla gram panchayat of Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur district, Naqvi asserted that neither the citizenship nor the voting rights of any Muslim citizen is under threat.

Naqvi said certain political groups were running a “well-planned political conspiracy” aimed at sowing fear among Muslims so they could “harvest votes by creating insecurity”. He claimed that parties that have historically received bulk Muslim support had not empowered the community socially, educationally, economically, or politically.

He accused these parties—referring to them as a “defeated dynasty”—of attempting to destabilise democratic processes and spread “violent anarchy” through misinformation. According to Naqvi, people had already rejected what he called this “deliberate design to defame democracy”.

Urging citizens to stay alert, he warned against “political pollution being spread by the sinister syndicate” and argued that the SIR is merely part of the routine process of securing eligible voters and removing ineligible ones from electoral rolls. He stressed that such scrutiny is a standard element of a functioning democracy.

Taking aim at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Naqvi claimed that the opposition’s allegations of “vote theft” had collapsed and described the campaign against the SIR exercise as an attempt to hold democracy “hostage to dynasty”. He said the rhetoric used by the opposition leadership had turned the Congress into a “laughing stock”.

Naqvi also pointed to Bihar’s high voter turnout during the ongoing two-phase assembly polls as evidence that the opposition’s narrative had failed. The first phase recorded a historic turnout of 65.08 percent. He argued that this “bumper turnout” demonstrated the public’s rejection of attempts to discourage voting.

Criticising the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, Naqvi said alliances succeed through political understanding rather than “feudal whims”, adding that power should reflect a mandate for good governance, not family legacy. He said that attempts by “power-hungry sultans” to shape politics through feudal attitudes would not succeed.

Naqvi concluded by urging the Muslim community to reflect on what he described as the “fashion to defeat the BJP”, arguing that unless this changed, so-called “pseudo-secular” parties would continue to exploit the community’s aversion to the BJP for political gains.