The delegation expressed disappointment with the Commission’s response, stating that it failed to provide a substantive explanation to the concern raised during the meeting at Nirvachan Sadan, New Delhi, on Wednesday.
File Photo: IANS
The INDIA Alliance delegation from Bihar has criticised the Election Commission for not adequately addressing the concerns raised by political parties regarding the Special Intensive Revision of electoral roll in Bihar.
Addressing media persons after the meeting, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the last electoral revision was held in 2003, one year before the general elections and two years before the assembly elections in Bihar.
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Singhvi said: “We are not against it. But it should be done with great caution, great care, with great comprehensiveness and great time. Do it after the elections in Bihar, when you will have five years before next elections in the state. Why now on the very cusp of the election?”
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RJD National Spokesperson Manoj Jha expressed disappointment over the EC officials’ response to the concerns raised during the meeting and said that they failed to satisfy the delegation.
He alleged that this exercise is aimed at “exclusion instead of inclusion”. He asserted: “Not only the poor, Dalits and minorities, but migratory citizens of Bihar are also facing threat of exclusion from the voter list.”
The RJD leader said that the EC officials had no answer when the delegation asked about the rationale of carrying out an exercise that was not conducted for the past 22 years. They could not answer about how many voters they were expecting to produce those 11 documents needed to determine their eligibility.
Jha said: “I have told them that if they are planning to disenfranchise crores of people, then the story will not end here. People will come out on the street, because the right to vote is the most important right of an individual in a democratic country.”
He added: “We hope that the EC will read the writings on the wall.”
CPI-ML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that their fear has further aggravated after meeting the Election Commission.
He said: “Unfortunately, we failed to convince them that the exercise is not possible within the stipulated time period of one month. But I would like to tell people of Bihar to get ready for a bigger movement. There is a threat to their democratic right.”
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