Opposition MPs, including Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday held a protest in Parliament premises against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Holding posters that said “SIR is the murder of democracy” and “Justice, Justice, Justice”, the MPs raised slogans against the Election Commission and the BJP-led NDA government.
Speaking to mediapersons, Congress MP Rajeev Shukla stated that the protest against the highly controversial voter list revision will continue until the Election Commission listens.
His Congress colleague and MP, Pramod Tiwari, termed the SIR exercise a BJP attempt to murder democracy, claiming it was the first time so many names were being removed from the voters’ list before an election.
“Their conspiracy has come to light. Never before have so many names been removed before an election. This is an attempt by the BJP to murder democracy, like in Haryana and Maharashtra. We will knock on every door against it. But we will not let the BJP snatch away the right to vote,” said Tiwari.
Meanwhile, JD-U MP Giridhari Yadav has also come out strongly against the SIR exercise, calling it a “forceful imposition” that lacks practical knowledge.
Sharing his personal experience, Yadav said that it took him 10 days to collect all the documents, adding that the poll panel should have given at least six months.
“The Election Commission has no practical knowledge. It knows neither the history nor the geography of Bihar. It took 10 days for me to collect all the documents. My son stays in America. How will he do the signatures in just a month? This (SIR) has been imposed on us forcefully. At least 6 months’ time should have been given for this,” he remarked.
The JD-U MP, however, clarified it was his personal opinion.
“I am giving my personal opinion. It doesn’t matter what the party is saying; this is the truth. If I can’t say the truth, why have I become an MP?” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Election Commission of India flagged several discrepancies in Bihar electoral rolls.
According to the commission, the ongoing SIR exercise has revealed that there are 18 lakh deceased electors, and seven lakh duplicate voters in the state’s electoral rolls. Moreover, the ECI found 26 lakh electors have shifted to different constituencies.
