Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday criticised the Election Commission over the ongoing revision of electoral rolls, saying it amounted to special intensive deletion of valid votes and special intensive addition of invalid votes. He questioned the purpose of elections if the poll body's intention was to keep the BJP in power.
Sibal's remarks came after he and his wife were issued notices under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls under the "unmapped with last SIR" category.
The former Union minister said that if this happened to people like him, one could imagine what ordinary voters would face and how they would cope with the process.
Addressing a press conference here, Sibal said, "And why is this man (Chief Election Commissioner) Gyanesh Kumar sitting on that chair? On what basis is he doing this, and why is he being allowed to do this?"
Sibal said he was shocked to learn that although his name was in the draft electoral roll, he had been sent a notice.
He said the notice claimed a mismatch between the names of his father/self as given in the current electoral roll and those in the electoral rolls prepared during the previous SIR.
"This is the level at which the Election Commission is operating -- without application of mind as to who should be sent a notice, who should not be sent a notice. And if this happens to people like us, who are hopefully public figures, then what happens to the ordinary man? How will he ever cope with all this?" the Independent Rajya Sabha MP said.
"Till date, I have not got a physical copy of the notice sent to me. I don't have a copy; it has not been served here, it's not in my office. Had I not known about this, they would have sent similar notices and deleted my name unless then I go and file a petition in the Supreme Court and say 'No, please don't delete my name.' What's going on in this country?" Sibal said.
"What kind of special intensive revision is it? Special intensive deletion and special intensive addition, delete valid votes and add invalid votes. That is what this is all about," he said.
"If you want to install the BJP in government then what is the point of conducting elections," Sibal said.
Sibal alleged that a "special intensive addition" was also under way, under which fabricated voters were being added and valid voters deleted.
"That's called the special intensive revision. And then we have to go to the Supreme Court and file petitions... and of the 38 lakhs who have been deleted, only 1 lakh in West Bengal have been decided," he said.
"We might as well not have the election. Forget about elections! If the Election Commission wants the BJP to always be in power, let's get rid of this. Let's be honest about it... You can go to court, you can do what you like, and if the court is willing to accept this procedure, God help this country," Sibal said.
Sibal alleged that a "mala fide, dishonest" exercise was under way to prepare a voters list for the 2029 election.
Several prominent voters, including Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and Sibal, have been issued notices over "discrepancies" in the details of their enumeration forms submitted under the ongoing SIR exercise, officials said on Saturday.
The entry for Gupta, however, has been "validated", and her name will be included in the final electoral roll of the Shalimar Bagh constituency, scheduled to be published on November 4, the CEO's office said in a statement.
(With inputs from PTI)
