Even as a delegation of INDIA bloc leaders met the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter rolls in Bihar, sources on Thursday revealed that the alliance partners may go to court and also launch state wide campaign against the poll panels steps, which they allege that it will leave over two crore voters may be disenfranchised by this exercise being done just ahead of assembly elections later this year.
A source from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA bloc revealed that if the poll panel does not agree with their demands then they will have to knock the Court’s door over the issue.
He also stated that INDIA bloc partners in Bihar, which comprises of the Congress, Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Left parties may also hold discussions to decide on the joint campaign in the state over the poll panel’s plans to carry out SIR of voter rolls.
He stated that in the coming days, when the alliance partners meet again they will chalk out strategy to take on the poll panel exercise by planning state wide protest or through the joint rallies to highlight the issue.
The leaders feel that the exercise of the Commission is aimed to deny the right to vote to poor, SC/STs, migratory people in the state, as they will have to make their submission within a month time to get their names enrolled in the voter list.
The source said that in the coming days, the alliance partners of the Mahagatbandhan will decide on the strategy and reveal it with the people.
The source further stated that it is however, too early to reveal the entire plan of the Mahagatbandhan till the time meeting happens.
On Wednesday, 11 parties delegation met with the CEC Gyanesh Kumar and other elections commissioners for over three hours and alleged that it will leave over two crore voters may be disenfranchised by this exercise being done just ahead of assembly elections later this year.
After the meeting on Wednesday, 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.
“This disenfranchisement, disempowerment is the worst attack on the basic structure of the Constitution,” he alleged.
Even 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.
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.
