EC IS DOING ‘VOTE BAN’ IN BIHAR, NAMES OF 2 CRORE VOTERS WILL BE DELETED

3-JULY-ENG 11

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA--------------------------11 opposition parties have strongly opposed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process being carried out by the Election Commission (ECI) ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar. These parties met Election Commission officials and alleged that this process is targeting the underprivileged sections and due to this the names of lakhs of genuine voters can be removed from the voter list.

Leaders of the INDIA alliance including Congress, RJD, CPI, CPI (M), CPI (ML)-Liberation, SP and NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and submitted a joint memorandum. The opposition parties alleged that due to this process the names of lakhs of marginalized people of Bihar can be removed from the voter list. He said that asking voters for birth certificates of themselves and their parents is not only complicated and unfair but it is also an excessive burden on 8.1 crore voters.

The Election Commission has proposed that only those people who are registered in the 2003 voter list will be considered voters, while the rest will have to submit documents for re-enrolment. The opposition says that this is a vague and legally baseless classification, which can deprive lakhs of people of voting rights without any valid reason. CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said, "If you are not in the 2003 voter list, you will have to prove your citizenship. This is a straight 'vote ban'." Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi warned that at least two crore voters can be excluded in this process, especially Dalits, tribals, migrant workers and poor sections. He also said that if someone's name is removed, then it will not be possible to challenge it in the court after the elections are announced, because during that time the courts avoid hearing election related cases. Singhvi also raised the question to the Election Commission that no major irregularities were reported in the many elections held since 2003, then why was the need for a special amendment felt suddenly now? He said that 4–5 elections were held in 22 years, were they all wrong?