RJD national working president Tejashwi Yadav on Friday accused the Election Commission of undermining democracy, alleging that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process was excluding eligible voters.
Yadav, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, also demanded the cancellation of the recent elections in all five states, including Bihar.
His remarks came after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders of the poll panel, including those concerning the addition, deletion and restoration of voters and changes to the voter registration process.
"The recent elections in all five states, including Bihar, should be cancelled. Why were the two Election Commissioners now questioning the poll panel's functioning silent for so long? The SIR process is excluding eligible voters and the EC has been reduced to a tool for undermining democracy," Yadav said in a post on X.
He also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had turned the poll panel into a "tool for dismantling democracy", and said people would take to the streets to demand transparency and accountability from the EC.
Responding to questions over demands for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, Union minister Chirag Paswan said the Election Commission should firmly present its position if questions were being raised against it.
"If such questions are being raised against the EC, then I believe that this responsibility also lies with the poll panel to firmly present their side of the argument. I don't care what the opposition says because the opposition's job is to do politics," Paswan said.
(With inputs from PTI)