Expressing his frustration over the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise to overhaul electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday stated that if everything has already been decided, his party will think of boycotting the upcoming state assembly elections.
“When everything has already been decided, they are being openly dishonest. Names of lakhs of people have been removed from the voters’ list. We can think of boycotting the election,” Yadav told reporters in Patna.
He said that the RJD will discuss this (boycotting the elections in Bihar) with alliance partners but asserted that it remains an open option.
The RJD leader further questioned the purpose of holding assembly elections in the state when the names of lakhs of people are being removed from the voters’ list under the guise of the SIR exercise.
“What is the meaning of an election when people will not vote in a democracy? We can discuss about boycotting the election; options are open,” he added.
His remarks come amid the controversy over the poll body’s decision to overhaul the voters’ list in the state.
While the Election Commission has defended the move, saying it seeks to remove fake voters from the electoral rolls, the Opposition parties, including the RJD, have alleged that it is a BJP conspiracy to win the election.
The Opposition has also moved the Supreme Court challenging the SIR exercise. The apex court, while hearing a batch of petitions filed by several opposition parties, NGOs, and independent activists, questioned the timing of the exercise but refused to stay it.
The court, however, directed the Election Commission to include the Aadhaar card among the necessary verification documents.