NEW DELHI — Congress on Thursday blasted the Election Commission of India for being unabashedly partisan by acting like the middleman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The party alleged that the poll body has Clear intention to disenfranchise 20 percent Bihar voters.
With the state elections drawing closer, senior Congress leaders alleged that the move is a “deliberate attempt to delete names of the poor, Dalits, backward communities, and migrant workers.”
At a press briefing held at the new Congress headquarters in Delhi, Congress Media and Publicity Chairman Pawan Khera, Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram, and Congress Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru questioned both the intent and feasibility of the revision process, calling it “humanly impossible.”
“How can you verify the names of 8 crore voters in just 30 days? Even the Chief Election Commissioner has said that this is the new ECI and the new normal. Is it now up to the CEC to decide who he will or won’t meet?” asked Pawan Khera.
They charged that the Special Intensive Review of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the elections was aimed at disenfranchising about two crore voters who may not be able to furnish the documents the Election Commission is seeking.
Pawan Khera observed that the ‘SIR’ was a clear conspiracy to disenfranchise the Bihar voters and deny them their basic right to vote. He noted that the ECI was acting like the puppet of the BJP government.
“If this continues, the ECI may as well shift its office to the BJP headquarters,” he quipped.
He took strong exception to the way the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar dealt with a delegation of eleven parties belonging to the INDIA bloc. He told the CEC that he should leave a better legacy for future lest his name is dumped in the dustbin of history.
“The way ECI is being run poses a serious threat to democracy – not just against the Opposition, but against each and every voter”, the senior Congress leader warned, while pointing out, everybody’s limits are defined by the Constitution and no one including the Commission should try to breach those limits.
“With all humility at my command, I warn the ECI that the governments come and go. Why are you being so servile to them? It would be better if you followed the Constitution”, he told the Commission, while remarking, “so many ‘shahs’ and ‘shahanshahs’ came and went away”.
The controversy comes a day after a delegation of the INDIA bloc leaders met the poll panel officials, including CEC Gyanesh Kumar, wherein Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi reportedly said that the CEC did not allow all leaders who visited the commission’s office to attend the meeting.
Khera also accused ECI official Gyanesh Kumar of leaking internal messages to journalists, stating, “This cannot remain hidden anymore. What legacy is the CEC leaving behind, of denying people their fundamental right to vote?”
Bihar Congress President Rajesh Ram echoed his concerns, warning that Bihar’s unique socio-geographical challenges – floods in the north, drought in the south, and widespread migration – make a quick revision not only unworkable but discriminatory.
“Three crore people have migrated for work. And what about flood-affected regions? Will you verify them on steamers and boats?” he asked.
“Most of the poor, SC, ST, and OBC communities do not possess birth certificates, only 2.18 per cent do. What about the rest?”
He further noted that Bihar’s electoral machinery is overburdened. “BLOs are handling thousands of voters each. There are huge vacancies in the system. How will this task be completed in such a short time? There is a huge shortage of resources and staff,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Krishna Allavaru said that the Special Intensive Review of the electoral rolls was yet another “arbitrary decision” of the Modi government being imposed on people.
He said that first it was the demonetisation, then the GST, followed by an unannounced lockdown, the acceptance of a ceasefire when our defence forces had an upper hand over Pakistan, and now this was the fifth arbitrary decision to carry out an exercise of such a magnitude within a month in Bihar.
Allavaru challenged the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, and all the three Election Commissioners to present a single example anywhere in the world of such a humongous exercise of reviewing 8 crore voters within just one month.
He pointed out, the voters among these 8 crores had cast their votes just a year ago in the General Election. He asked – what has changed within a year that the Election Commission has decided in an arbitrary manner to go for Special Intensive Revision, asking people to furnish documents within just one month?
Why the Election Commission has refused to acknowledge the most conveniently available and widely accepted proofs of identity like the Aadhaar card, voter ID, ration card, job card or the driving licence?Allavaru asked.
“The poor people of Bihar, the youth and the marginalised sections will be made to suffer by being asked to produce their birth certificates as well as those of their parents”, he noted, while asking, “is this a joke?”
Krishna Allavaru slammed the move as “Tughlaki farman”, drawing parallels with demonetisation.
All three leaders challenged the poll panel to clarify why Aadhaar and other government-issued IDs like ration cards or job cards are not being accepted for verification.
