Bihar SIR: Attempt being made to spread confusion, claims EC
A deliberate attempt was being made to spread confusion by ignoring the ground reality of the special intensive revision of Bihar’s voter roll, Election Commission of India claimed on Sunday.
At a press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar raised concern over why verified documents and testimonials submitted by political parties’ district heads and booth-level agents regarding the exercise were not being passed on to their state or national leadership.
“The doors of the Election Commission are always open for everyone equally,” Kumar said on Sunday. “At the ground level, all the voters, all the political parties and all the booth-level officers are working together in a transparent manner, verifying, signing and also giving video testimonials.”
The draft voter roll released on August 1 revealed the removal of 65.6 lakh names. According to the poll panel, 22 lakh were deleted due to deaths, 36 lakh belonged to individuals who had permanently relocated or could not be traced, and seven lakh were identified as duplicate entries.
Kumar claimed that some persons were misleading the public by asking why the exercise was being carried out in a hurry.
“Should the voter list be rectified before or after the elections?” the poll panel chief asked. “The Election Commission is not saying this; the Representation of the People Act says that you have to rectify the voter list before every election.” This is the legal responsibility of the Election Commission, he said.
He went on to say: “When more than seven crore voters of Bihar are standing with the Election Commission, then neither can any question mark be raised on the credibility of the Election Commission nor on the credibility of the voters.”
Kumar also said that no political party had lodged objections so far after the draft roll was published on August 1. He added that the main purpose of the revision exercise was to “purify” the voter list, adding that it was carried out after receiving several complaints from political parties.
“For EC neither anyone is Opposition nor ruling party,” Kumar said. “There is no discrimination between parties, all are the same.”
However, several media reports had quoted workers of political parties as saying that they had filed several complaints.
He added that the election commissioners are yet to decide when the special intensive revision of voter rolls is to be carried out in West Bengal and other states.
Meanwhile, on same day, INDIA alliance launched 16-day Voter Adhikar Yatra, or a voter rights march, in Bihar.
On claims made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that his party had found discrepancies in more than one lakh names in the Mahadevapura Assembly segment of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency, Kumar said that an affidavit would have to be submitted or an apology made to the country.
“There is no third option,” he said. “If the affidavit is not received within seven days, it means that all these allegations are baseless.”
