NEW DELHI: With the Election Commission activating its poll machinery across states for a possible roll out of pan-India special intensive revision (SIR), Opposition parties have vehemently condemned the move, calling it a strategic attempt to disenfranchise ‘sections’ of people in a targeted manner. They said that the poll body should be transparent and address the concern of people and political parties as it is going to have a ‘serious repercussions’.
Congress spokesperson PL Punia said that with the revision exercise, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aims to sanitise the voters list to retain power.
“All this is an excuse as the BJP wants to remove its opponents from the voter list by declaring them Bangladeshis, Nepalis, or something. The problem is that the BJP has always wanted political power, thus it is moving ahead strategically. They know that the Election Commissioner is their (BJP) man. They can do it without difficulties,” Punia told TNIE.
Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said, what the EC had done Maharashtra assembly elections behind closed doors— arbitrary removal of name from electoral rolls--it is being done openly in Bihar and that the EC further wants to carry out similar exercises across states.
“They (EC) will have to ensure that the transparency and the questions and doubts that are in the citizens’ minds, as well as the minds of political parties, are addressed convincingly, which till now we have noticed the Election Commission has avoided to do. So while this exercise could be a mandated exercise, it seems to be an attempt to get voter deletions happen on the basis of who they choose to vote for,” she said.
Several opposition parties recently moved the Supreme Court challenging the intensive revision in Bihar, saying it will deprive eligible citizens of their right to vote. The Court last called the SIR a “constitutional mandate” and permitted the Committee to continue with the exercise in the state.
The EC subsequently sent a communication to Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all the states to activate poll machinery for a possible roll out of the exercise on a pan-India basis.
Seeking early decision in the matter related to SIR in Bihar, the general secretary of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) MA Baby said that before undertaking the exercise, all political parties should have taken onboard.
“This is an exercise, which we fear is aimed at excluding disenfranchising sections of people in a targeted manner. This will have very serious repercussions…The EC is to conduct themselves as responsible constitutional authorities. They should not be seen as a tool of the ruling party at the centre,” said Baby.
Earlier, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal asked the Commission not to proceed with the proposals of carrying out Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
“The BJP has mastered the art of taking a bad idea and making it worse. As if the chaos and opposition to the Bihar SIR was not enough, the BJP-controlled ECI now wants to subject the entire country through this trauma. Every Indian citizen will be looked at with suspicion, their voting rights will be under threat, and the whole electoral system will be rigged. The ECI must shelve all proposals of a nationwide SIR immediately,” he posted on ‘X’.
