NEW DELHI: Leaders of 11 INDIA bloc parties met the Election Commission (EC) over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar and raised their concerns, and alleged that over two crore voters of the state may be disenfranchised by this exercise being done just ahead of assembly elections later this year.
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 elections in Bihar.
Briefing the media after the almost three.hour marathon meeting, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “A minimum figure of 2 crore persons may be disenfranchised in this exercise as many, especially, the SCs/STs, migratory and impoverished among the nearly 8 crore voters in Bihar, may not be in a position to present their and their parents’ birth certificates to the poll authorities in such a short period of time.”
Singhvi claimed that they would also not be able to challenge the removal of their names from the electoral rolls as polls would begin by then and courts do not hear challenges when elections are underway.
“We asked the EC that the last revision was in 2003 and for 22 years after 4-5 elections have happened, were all those elections faulty or imperfect or unreliable,” Singhvi said, adding that the SIR was held one year before general elections and 2 years before assembly elections.
Singhvi also mentioned that in a maximum period of one or two months the EC is holding an electoral revision exercise of the second most populated state in India – Bihar, which has roughly under 8 crore voters.
“This disenfranchisement, disempowerment is the worst attack on the basic structure of the Constitution. We gave universal adult suffrage, when so-called advanced countries like the USA and UK got it only in 1924 and 1928,” the Congress Rajya Sabha MP said.
He further said that today, every vote counts, even if its wrongfully deleted or a single voter is wrongfully added, it creats a non-level playing field and that affects elections, that affects democracy.
“Elections and democracy are part of the basic structure and it is said that even a constitutional amendment is unconstitutional if it affects the basic structure,” he asserted.
Firing salvos at the poll panel, Singhvi asked, “How do you expect the very diverse voting population of Bihar, the backwards, the flood-affected, the poor and impoverished, the SC/ST, the unempowered or even the migrant to spend the next two months running from pillar to post to get the birth certificate of his own and his father or mother.”
“It is easy to say that the volunteers will help him, but if he does not get the certificate within the time limit, he loses his place in the electoral roll,” he pointed out.
Singhvi also said that the delegation have said that upwards of 2.5 crore to 3 crore persons, “let us assume the minimum figure of 2 crore may be disenfranchised in this exercise”.
“We are not against it, but this can be done with great care and time after this election. Why choose this time just ahead of the assembly elections,” Singhvi said.
He asserted that this is a “vital part of the free and fair elections” and you cannot spring this in such a short time with such a huge and mammoth electoral exercise.
“We believe that migratory persons, who have to travel for work, cannot be at the beck and call of the person who knows on the door asking for filling up the enumeration form,” he said.
He also highlighted that voters have been there on rolls since 2003 and have voted in 4-5 elections.
“The EC, though it heard us, seems to be disinclined to accept our submissions,” he alleged.
Singhvi said 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.
Meanwhile, RJD leader Manoj Jha also said that the meeting, during which they questioned if the exercise was about disenfranchising people, was “not cordial”.
Jha, who is also a rajya Sabha MP said, “We expressed our concern about the poor, backward classes in Bihar. We saw lack of concern from the Election Commission.”
“Is this an effort to disenfranchise people? The 20 percent Biharis who migrate outside the state are at the target. If the purpose of an exercise becomes exclusion instead of inclusion, what should we do?
“Are you trying to find doubtful voters in Bihar?” he added.
Even CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya targeted the Commission and said their doubts and worries about the SIR have increased after the meeting because they did not get any satisfactory reply.
“We said the poor will not have these documents. They said those who are in the 2003 voters’ list will be presumed to be citizens of India, the rest will have to prove their citizenship to the EC,” he said.
“We said this reminds people of Bihar of ‘notebandi’ (demonitisation’, and it is being called ‘votebandi’ (disenfranchisement) in Bihar,” he alleged.
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.
The poll panel has issued instructions to carry out a SIR in Bihar to weed out ineligible names and ensure all eligible citizens are included in the electoral roll, allowing them to exercise their franchise in the polls slated later this year.
The poll panel has said it has taken additional steps in the intensive revision to ensure illegal migrants do not get enrolled in the voters list.
