The INDIA bloc is considering legal action and organising state-wide joint rallies against Bihar’s voter rolls revision. It has alleged that the revision risks disenfranchising over two crore voters before state elections.
The INDIA bloc is mulling legal action and a statewide campaign in Bihar against the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, which the opposition alleges could disenfranchise over two crore voters ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
A day after a delegation of 11 INDIA bloc parties met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other election officials, sources within the alliance confirmed they are considering approaching the courts if their concerns are not addressed.
The alliance, comprising the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Left parties in Bihar, is also discussing joint rallies and other forms of public mobilisation to oppose the SIR.
On Thursday, a senior alliance leader said that if the Election Commission continues with the revision process without ensuring safeguards, they would be left with no option but to seek legal recourse. Congress leader Pawan Khera, when asked about the possibility of going to court, said all options remain open.
During the nearly three-hour-long meeting with the Election Commission on Wednesday, the delegation raised strong objections to the timing and implementation of the SIR. Congress spokesperson and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleged that the revision exercise, being conducted months before the state goes to polls, threatens to disenfranchise a minimum of two crore voters, particularly among Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, migrant workers, and those from impoverished backgrounds.
Singhvi argued that many voters would not be able to produce their or their parents’ birth certificates on such short notice and risk having their names removed from the voter list. He also warned that there would be no way to challenge such deletions once the model code of conduct is in place and courts stop entertaining election-related pleas.
Questioning the timing of the SIR, Singhvi pointed out that the last such revision in Bihar was in 2003. “For 22 years, after four or five elections, were all those elections faulty or unreliable?” he asked. He also termed the exercise an attack on the Constitution, calling it a move towards disenfranchisement and disempowerment.
