As the Supreme Court on Monday told the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar and voter cards for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha MP Manoj K Jha tells Preetha Nair that the poll panel must behave like a constitutional body and stick to its mandate of conducting free and fair elections in the country.
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EC data says over 65 lakh voters may not figure in Bihar’s draft electoral roll. Does it validate the Opposition’s concerns on disenfranchisement?
We have been consistently saying that the Election Commission is doing the exercise with a hallmark of opacity. For instance, if you look at the different categories— such as diseased, permanently shifted, untraceable or found to be registered at different places—shows lack of transparency. When people are not available, they presume they have moved out. That presumption is flawed. We will watch each and every entry in these categories, once the numbers are shared with our district and state level units, but more importantly, we will go by the Supreme Court, because somewhere the Election Commission has defied their direction by not incorporating Aadhaar, EPIC card and ration card as documents for the SIR.
Did you ask EC to share the details of the voters who are excluded from the draft electoral roll?
Yes. We have asked details of each category. We will not allow the Election Commission to do it in a brazen manner, where the very idea of inclusion gets lost. The 2024 general election was conducted on the basis of these numbers. Now if they are saying the numbers were flawed, then that election should be called null and void.
The EC said that Aadhaar and Voter ID can’t be relied upon.
The denial of the Aadhaar card, voter ID card and ration cards are in the direction of disenfranchisement. I think that they have decided it much before the exercise. Bihar is one of the most document deficient states. However, Aadhaar has a penetration of 86- 87%.
The RJD will weigh the option of boycotting the election over SIR…
The context is important, rather than the statement which was made. The context was, if the Election Commission goes in the same manner, without any consultation, behaves like the Election Commission of Bangladesh, then what option do political parties and the wider public have in democracy?.
Why do you think the poll panel is not acting in a non- partisan manner?
One line, behave like a constitutional body. Your mandate is Article 324 to conduct free and fair elections. And the EC should go back to the basic rule book that doesn’t trespass the domain, which is not in your remit.
Do you think the citizenship issue is not the EC’s domain?
The citizenship issue comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is not the job of the Election Commission. By trespassing, they are trying to camouflage the direction given by the ruling party. And that’s a sad day for democracy.
But the EC says it goes by Article 326 for citizenship.
I request the EC to go by the Supreme Court judgments.
There are allegations of large-scale tampering of enumeration forms by Block Level Officers (BLOs) kin Bihar.
We have included all of it in our rejoinder to the Supreme Court.