Opposition senses ‘opportunity' in electoral roll revision, frequently rakes up issue
, the opposition Grand Alliance (GA) missed forming the govt by a whisker. Five years later, the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being conducted by the Election Commission ahead of the polls in the state has come as a blessing in disguise for GA, feel poll analysts.
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GA is armed with a prominent issue that is supposedly causing confusion among electors, they said.
Cashing in on the 'opportunity', leader of opposition in the state assembly,
, along with INDIA bloc allies, is raking up the concerns of voters almost daily. So far, he has held around six press conferences over the issue, indicating the significance of the issue, while the NDA has held none. The opposition is finding it a major opportunity to reach out to a large number of voter, cashing in on the anger gripping them.
"First, your name will be deleted from the voter list, and in due course, you will lose benefits from all welfare schemes that you might be getting now, one by one," Tejashwi has repeatedly warned at press conferences.
Explaining how the deletion of names of the voter proves disastrous for the poor, RJD spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan said on Tuesday: "Deletion of names from the voter list means losing every govt facility."
He said the biggest loss the people could face is not getting 5 kg free ration. Of the total population of 10.41 crore, as per the 2011 census, the total number of beneficiaries under the Centre-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana in Bihar is around 8.71 crore, which comes to 84% of the total population. They will also not be getting houses under PM Awas Yojana, pension and other such facilities.
Social scientist B N Prasad said the EC has launched such a big campaign, but the methodology remains unclear.
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"It is not clear if the BLOs are visiting door to door to deliver/collect enumeration forms. No BLO has visited my home so far. Also, the voices coming from the grassroots do not appear fair or accurate," Prasad, who works with the AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, told the TOI.
"This is a theatre of the absurd," said former principal of Patna College, N K Chaudhary, while reacting to the opposition's hullabaloo over the SIR issue.
"But EC should have given more time and increased the number of documents required to be submitted with the filled-up enumeration forms," he said.
The opposition has found a potent issue—much like in the 2015 Bihar polls, when NDA's lead crumbled after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat called for a review of the reservation policy. RJD chief Lalu Prasad turned it into an 'opportunity', warning voters that the RSS-BJP aimed to dismantle the quota system.
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