INDIA bloc oppose intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar

The opposition INDIA bloc in Bihar on Friday strongly opposed the Election Commission’s (EC) proposed intensive revision of electoral rolls, calling it a “conspiracy” to help the BJP-led NDA in upcoming state assembly polls.
At a joint press conference here, addressed by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Congress’ media and publicity department chief Pawan Khera and CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, among others, the opposition coalition said it would send a delegation to the EC and “further action will be taken if they fail to satisfy us”.
Yadav said, “If the EC was so serious about holding this exercise, why did it not go ahead immediately after last year’s Lok Sabha polls? Why did it wait till earlier this week?”
He added, “Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had recently rushed to Delhi, apparently to share with coalition partners fears about his JD(U)’s prospects in the Assembly polls. We suspect that the EC was subsequently instructed by the ruling coalition to do something that could help it in elections”.
He also said the exercise, as part of which voters will be required to furnish birth certificates of themselves as well as their parents, was “aimed at disenfranchising a large number of people, especially those from deprived sections of society, like Dalits, Muslims and the backward classes”.
“It is ridiculous that the EC, which had recently proposed linking voter ID cards to Aadhaar numbers of respective holders, is not acknowledging the latter as a proof of citizenship. It appears that those who are not able to furnish requisite documents would have their names deleted from the voters’ list,” Yadav said.
“It is not going to end there. At a later stage, such people could be deprived of the benefits of social welfare schemes. This is in line with the anti-people thinking of the BJP-RSS to which Dattatreya Hosbale gave expression by advocating deletion of the worlds socialist and secular from the preamble of the Constitution”, the former Bihar Deputy CM alleged. The young leader remarked, “It is impossible for the EC to conduct such a mammoth exercise between July 1 and 31, with not more than 25 working days in between. The last time such an intensive revision was conducted 12 years ago, it had taken two years. If it is possible to accomplish the task in such a small period of time, I would challenge the Centre to get the caste census done in two months flat”. Speaking on the occasion, Khera said, “Mahatma Gandhi’s three monkeys saw, heard and spoke no evil. The EC sees, hears and speaks no truth. When our leader Rahul Gandhi raised doubts over the way assembly polls were held in Maharashtra, the rebuttal came from BJP. What do we make out of this? (yeh Rishta kya kehlata hai)”.
He added, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rattled at recent opinion polls that show the NDA heading for a poor show in Bihar. So, he may have used the EC as a toolkit, a masterstroke, to use expressions he has been very fond of”.
Khera also said, “My friend Tejashwi Yadav may be right in questioning why such an exercise has been limited only to Bihar. But I believe that Bihar is being used as a laboratory and sooner or later, attempts will be made to hit deprived sections across the country through similar exercises”.
Bhattacharya, who had written to the EC voicing his opposition a day ago, claimed that the proposed exercise was “logically absurd” and turn out to be “a logistical nightmare” as it was being carried during monsoons when large parts of the state are ravaged by floods.
The Left leader added, “The intensive revision endangers the people’s right to vote. It is murder of democracy, which according to the NDA, had taken place only during the Emergency”.
Asked whether the coalition could move the court to challenge the EC exercise, Yadav said, “We will be sending a delegation to the EC with a memorandum. If they fail to satisfy us we will think about further course of action”.