NEW DELHI: Hailing the Supreme Court order on Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls (SIR) in Bihar, the Congress on Thursday called it a ‘massive victory’ for democracy and a ‘huge message’ for ‘vote thieves’ who tried to distort the electoral process in the state.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish the details of 65 lakh names deleted from the electoral roll in Bihar including the reasons for their non-inclusion, in order to enhance transparency in the SIR process.
In a statement, Congress general secretary (Organisation), KC Venugopal said that it is an important first step in the party’s fight against the draconian and disastrous SIR process.
“As one of the petitioners in this case, it is heartening that in unequivocal terms, the Court has ordered that machine-readable electoral rolls be made available - in line with one of the central demands of Rahul Gandhi’s press conference,” he said.
“We also welcome the insistence on swift declaration of the 65 lakh deleted names by the ECI which will no doubt go a long way in bringing much needed transparency to the SIR process,” he said.
“The Court rejecting the ECI’s decision to not accept Aadhar is also a major boost, since in a state like Bihar, Aadhaar is the most widely held document by the poor and marginalized,” he added.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the campaign of millions of aware citizens, the Congress, and LoP Rahul Gandhi have achieved its first success’ through the intervention of the SC.
Lashing out at the Congress, BJP National President JP Nadda said, “Congress tried every trick and deceit to stop SIR but they had to face disappointment in the SC today”.
Criticising the Congress for creating confusion around the SIR, Nadda said the party was clinging to non-issues.
“Now, in sheer desperation, Congress is clutching at non-issues and parading them as ‘moral victories’. The fact remains that all their canards are being rejected, exposed, and defeated one by one,” he said.