Leaders of several INDIA alliance parties met the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar and raised their concerns.
Leaders from 11 parties, including the Congress, RJD, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, NCP-SP and Samajwadi Party, met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other election commissioners, objecting to the special scrutiny being conducted just a few months ahead of the assembly election in the state, PTI reported.
“Two things we have objected to as preliminary issues: 1) The requirement that only the head or chairperson or president of the political parties could attend. 2) The rather pedantic insistence on two persons per party has no legal basis or sanction, which is most unfortunate,” said Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi briefing the media.
He added: “We have requested them to work out a system to ensure it doesn’t recur. On the merits, we raised several issues: Firstly, we questioned the timing of the revision, given that the last revision was in 2003. For 22 years and over 4-5 elections: were all those elections completely unreliable and imperfect? Secondly, the Special Revision of Electoral Rolls (SIR) held in 2003 took place a year before the national Lok Sabha elections of 2004 and 24 months before the assembly elections. In contrast, the current electoral revision exercise for Bihar is being conducted with a maximum period of only 1-2 months. Thirdly, this disenfranchisement is the worst attack on the basic structure of the Constitution.”
“You have abandoned the documentation process that has been in use for decades, such as Aadhaar cards or ration cards,” he said.
He went on to say: “Unless one is already in the electoral roll of 2003, all other names require a birth certificate, and in one category, the birth certificates of both parents are needed. How do you expect the backward, flood-affected, poor, and migrant populations to run from pillar to post to obtain birth certificates for themselves or their parents? If a person fails to obtain the certificate within the time limit, they risk losing their place on the electoral roll. They had an SSR, which is a summary revision, in October 2024. You give statements about educating voters and political parties, and having training camps for BLOs and for electoral officers. They said so in the published Election Commission statements of January, April and May, and finally, in the middle of June, gave a statement for conducting SIR. Our question is: why didn’t you mention it before? The Election Commission, although they heard us, seemed completely disinclined to accept our submissions.”
Singhvi further said that they also protested against the new directive of the poll panel for entry to the Election Commission premises that asks only party presidents to appear before it.
“For the first time, we were given rules to enter the EC. For the first time, we were told that only party chiefs can go. Such a restriction means necessary dialogue between political parties and the EC can’t happen,” Singhvi said.
“We had given a list, and no unauthorised person was allowed. Forcing parties to allow only two people is unfortunate,” he said, adding that some senior leaders had to wait for three hours.
“Today, the INDIA delegation met the Election Commission on the subject of the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (“SIR”). The Election Commission was literally compelled to meet the delegation after having refused to do so. A few of us could not meet the ECI, which unilaterally imposed a limit of 2 representatives per party. I myself had to hang around in the waiting room for almost two hours,” said Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh.
RJD leader Manoj Jha questioned if the exercise was about disenfranchising people.
“If you interfere with one person, one vote, we will take action,” he said.
“Are you trying to find ‘doubtful voters in Bihar?” he questioned, and also said they raised the issue of the documents being asked for the revision.
“After the PM’s ‘notebandi’ of November 2016 destroyed our economy, ECI’s ‘VOTE-Bandi’ in Bihar and other states as reflected in the SIR will destroy our democracy,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posted on X.
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