Cong opposes EC's electoral roll revision, says 'willful voter exclusion'

The Congress on Thursday opposed the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of this year's assembly polls saying it carries the risk of "willful exclusion" of voters using the state machinery.

 

In a statement, the Congress' empowered action group of leaders and experts (EAGLE), said this revision of electoral rolls by the EC is a "cure worse than the disease". 

The leaders said by undertaking the revision in Bihar and some other states, the EC has "admitted that all is not well" with India's electoral rolls. 

"The Congress party firmly opposes the SIR proposal of the EC for the Bihar state elections and subsequently in other states," the group said. 

The revision means that the EC will visit every single household and re-enroll every eligible voter in Bihar after a verification of identity and residential documents, the group said, adding that in simple terms, the poll panel wants to discard the current electoral rolls entirely and create a fresh new electoral roll for the state. 

"This is a clear and explicit admission by the EC that all is not well with India's electoral rolls. Exactly what the Congress party and the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi have been repeatedly pointing out with evidence from Maharashtra. 

"But the revision is a devious and dubious idea in the disguise of a solution. Lakhs of union and state government officials will now control and dictate who has correct documents and who doesn't, who gets to vote in the upcoming Bihar elections etc. This carries a huge risk of willful exclusion of voters using the power of the state machinery," the Congress experts and leaders said. 

They said the EC has come up with arduous rules for providing birth certificates of voters and their parents depending on the year of birth. 

These rules, the Congress said, are "arbitrary, whimsical and onerous" on the estimated 8.1 crore eligible voters in Bihar in 2025 (as per report of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, November 2019). 

The party said the EC had mooted a proposal on March 8 for electoral roll cleaning using Aadhaar, which while not perfect, is a more viable alternative solution than a electoral rolls revision in Bihar. 

"Why did the EC abandon that to suddenly announce an SIR three months after the Aadhaar proposal," it asked. 

Given the EC's dogged resistance to the Congress' long pending demand for Maharashtra electoral rolls and its dubious actions in the past, the party said, there is enough reason to be suspect about EC's plans for a revision in Bihar just a few months before an election. 

Congress leader Pawan Khera said, "the proposed Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls carries a huge risk of willful exclusion of voters using the power of the state machinery." The EC has said that it will carry out the intensive review of electoral rolls this year in six states beginning with Bihar to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of birth. 

Bihar is going to polls this year while assembly polls in five other states -- Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal -- are scheduled in 2026.