Opposition parties have strongly objected to the Election Commission’s decision regarding the special intensive revision of the voter list just before the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. Leaders of 11 opposition parties including Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India (CPI) reached the Election House (ECI office) on Tuesday and objected to this process and called it a violation of the right to electoral equality.
In fact, the Election Commission has recently ordered a special intensive revision of the voter list in Bihar, while assembly elections are to be held in 2-3 months in the state. Opposition parties say that this process cannot be completed in such a short time and it can deprive millions of voters, especially the poor and marginalized communities.
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that there are about 7.75 crore voters in Bihar and it is impossible to investigate such a large number in a few months. The last time such revision process took place in 2003, then the Lok Sabha elections were one year later and the assembly elections after two years. But this time the assembly elections are on the head.
He also told that this time many types of documents are being sought from the general public, which the poor and backward classes cannot gather so soon. Due to this, there is a danger of his name to be removed from the voter list.
What did the delegation say to the commission?
Opposition delegation of 18 members met the Election Commission at the Election House in Delhi. It included Abhishek Manu Singhvi, RJD’s Manoj Jha, CPI (ML) Dipankar Bhattacharya, Bihar Congress President Rajesh Kumar and others.
Dr. Singhvi said that under the new guideline of the Commission, only two people from each party were allowed to attend the meeting, which had to wait outside senior leaders like Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Kheda.