SIR exercise a ‘sinister campaign’ to deprive lakhs of voters of their franchise: Venugopal

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SIR exercise a 'sinister campaign' to deprive lakhs of voters of their franchise
SIR exercise a 'sinister campaign' to deprive lakhs of voters of their franchise

New Delhi: Congress on Friday doubled down on the Election Commossion of India over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar saying this government specializes in giving people hell and this exercise is a sinister campaign to deprive lakhs of voters of their franchise.

Taking a swipe at the government, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said, “This government specialises in giving people hell.”

Lamenting at the poll panel, the Congress leader said, “The SIR is a sinister exercise to deprive lakhs of voters of their franchise.”

Hitting out at the Election Commission, Venugopal asserted: “The unnecessary haste, and their absolute refusal to address genuine concerns raised by the Opposition, points to this being a clear effort to destroy the electoral system in Bihar.”

Vowing that the Congress will not allow it and said, “We will not let this go through. They must halt this ridiculous exercise immediately.”

He also attached a nwwseeport to back his claims.

His remarks came after an 11 party delegation met the Commission on Wednesday over the SIR of the voter rolls in Bihar and alleged that this exercise will disenfranchise over 2 crore voters in the state, where assembly polls for 243 member House is scheduled later this year.

Even the poll panel on Thursday clarified that it will notwithstand the Opposition’s refrain that the ongoing SIR of Bihar’s electoral roll stands to disenfranchise “tens of lakhs” of electors, and said that it remains steadfast in proceeding with SIR strictly as per the Constitution and the laws governing voter enrolment.

The Commission informed the political parties that the SIR exercise is being conducted in a planned, structured and a phased manner to facilitate the inclusion of all eligible citizens.

It stated that active participation by 1,54,977 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by the recognised political parties across the state of Bihar is also ensuring that the process is happening in a transparent manner. CEC Gyanesh Kumar exhorted all political parties to come forward and appoint even more BLAs to assist the voters in enrolment and make the process fully transparent and participative.

The INDIA bloc parties have been vocal in their opposition to the exercise of the Special Intensive Revision, which has already started in Bihar, and is to be carried out in five more states — Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal — that are going to polls next year.

Earlier, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav had said that his party will hold protest against the poll panel if names of poor are removed from electoral rolls.

The election for the 243 member assembly in Bihar is scheduled to take place later this year. The RJD, Congress and Left Parties Mahagatbandhan is looking to wrest power from the NDA comprising Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal United, the BJP, LJP Ramvilas and the Jitan Ram Manjhi led HAM-S.

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