Congress leader Jairam Ramesh blasts the poll panel for imposing restrictions on the delegation
NEW DELHI — INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Samajwadi Party, the Communist Party of India, and others, have strongly objected to the Election Commission’s decision to carry out ‘Special Intensive Revision’ of electoral rolls in Bihar when elections are around the corner.
An 18-member delegation of these parties met the ECI officials here on Wednesday and objected to the decision, saying it will be a serious violation of the level playing field.
Briefing reporters after meeting the ECI officials, Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, accompanied by RJD’s Manoj Jha, CPI (M-L)’s Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar PCC president Rajesh Kumar and other leaders, also objected to the Election Commission’s latest orders restricting the number of leaders who can visit the commission for the meetings. He said that the delegation members were told that only two representatives from each party could be allowed, including the president. He said that some senior leaders like Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera were made to wait outside.
Dr Singhvi said that the delegation pointed out during its meeting with the Election Commission that many elections had been held in Bihar since 2003 and questioned whether all those elections were wrong or illegal. They said, if the special intensive revision was to be done, why was the announcement made as late as June when the state assembly elections were just 2-3 months away?
He pointed out that about 7.75 crore electors were there in Bihar, and it would be a humongous task to verify all of them within such a short period. When the special revision was done in 2023, the next general elections were due after one year, while the assembly elections were due after two years. Why is the exercise being undertaken now, with only a couple of months left for the assembly elections? Singhvi asked.
The senior Congress leader said that for the first time, various documents were being sought, which will be practically impossible for downtrodden and marginalised people to arrange within such a short time.
He pointed out that the ECI made several announcements since January this year, but never mentioned the ‘SIR’, which was done all of a sudden. He said that it was a serious matter and a clear violation of the level playing field, which is very important as far as elections are concerned.
Meanwhile, Jairam Ramesh took his X handle to blast the ECI for not allowing him and Pawan Khera to go along with the INDIA bloc delegation. In his post, Ramesh said, ” The Election Commission was literally compelled to meet the delegation after having refused to do so. A few of us could not meet the ECI, which unilaterally imposed a limit of 2 representatives per party. I myself had to hang around in the waiting room for almost two hours.”
He alleged that over the last six months, the ECI has conducted itself in a manner that undermines the very basis of our democratic system.
Most importantly, he said the poll panel was a constitutional body; therefore, it cannot dictate arbitrary rules for interacting with political parties, such as deciding the designation of those attending or the number who can attend or who is or isn’t an authorised person.
“When the delegation rejected these new rules as arbitrary and confused, the Election Commission informed us that this is a ‘New’ Commission. We shudder to think what this ‘New’ Commission’s gameplan is. How many more Master(s)strokes can we expect?
After the PM’s ‘notebandi’ of November 2016 destroyed our economy, ECI’s ‘VOTE-Bandi’ in Bihar and other states as reflected in the SIR will destroy our democracy.”
