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No elector in Bihar to be deleted without prior notice, EC tells SC
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NDTV
19 minutes ago
- NDTV
AAP Leader Says Party Exposed BJP's Vote Theft, Congress Remained Silent
New Delhi: Amid the row erupted over Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's "vote theft" allegations, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Priyanka Kakkar on Tuesday alleged that a "massive vote theft scam" is currently underway in the country and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of "stealing votes" during the February 2025 Delhi Assembly elections. Kakkar also expressed disappointment over the Congress party's silence on alleged electoral irregularities in Delhi, despite raising similar concerns in Karnataka and Maharashtra. Speaking to ANI, the AAP leader said, "We stand with the country. Currently, a massive vote theft scam is underway in the country. AAP had shown how they (BJP) stole votes in the Delhi Assembly elections... We have always exposed the BJP's vote theft, but Congress has always remained silent on this issue." "Even today, when Congress raises the issue of SIR in Karnataka or Maharashtra, they still fail to acknowledge vote theft in Delhi. It is very unfortunate that at that time, they supported the BJP and said that whether someone's name is on the voter list or not, it doesn't matter to the public. This is very unfortunate," Kakkar added. Earlier today, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge joined fellow INDIA bloc members in staging a protest in Parliament over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) issue. Several Opposition MPs arrived wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan '124 Not Out'. Prominent leaders such as Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), MP Supriya Sule, and DMK MP Kanimozhi also protested on the issue. On Monday, in a show of unity, the INDIA bloc MPs took out a march from the Parliament to the EC headquarters in Delhi against the alleged election irregularities in the 2024 general election and against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. Rahul Gandhi said that the Opposition's fight is not a political fight but a fight to save the constitution. "The reality is that they cannot talk. The truth is in front of the country. This fight is not political. This fight is to save the Constitution. This fight is for One Man, One Vote. We want a clean, pure voters list," the Congress leader said. Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) on Monday responded to Rahul Gandhi's remarks, stating that the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha "still has time" to either submit a formal declaration substantiating his allegations of vote theft or apologise to the nation. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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Business Standard
19 minutes ago
- Business Standard
SC restrains Assam Police from taking coercive action against Varadarajan
The Supreme Court on Tuesday restrained Assam Police from taking any coercive action against senior journalist Siddharth Varadarajan in connection with an FIR lodged against him over an article on Operation Sindoor. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi issued notice on the PIL filed by the Foundation for Independent Journalism, which runs the web portal 'The Wire', challenging the constitutional validity of Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Section 152 of the BNS deals with the "act endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India". "Whoever, purposely or knowingly, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or by electronic communication or by use of financial means, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite, secession or armed rebellion or subversive activities, or encourages feelings of separatist activities or endangers sovereignty or unity and integrity of India; or indulges in or commits any such act shall be punished with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine," it reads. The top court asked the members of the foundation and Varadarajan to cooperate with the investigation into the matter. The bench tagged the matter with a similar pending plea in which notice was issued on August 8. The FIR against Varadarajan was registered after an article was published in 'The Wire' on Operation Sindoor, under which India targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in May in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Hindu
19 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Election Commission of India willing to correct ‘mistakes' in Bihar draft roll: Supreme Court
I The Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 12, 2025) said 'mistakes' might have happened while preparing the draft Bihar electoral roll and pointed to the Election Commission of India's (ECI) willingness to correct those even as petitioners reminded the court of its promise to 'step in' if the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) led to 'mass exclusion'. Appearing before a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi on the first day of hearing in the challenge to the SIR, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranaryanan said, 'My Lords promised you would step in if there was a mass exclusion. This has happened. Sixty-five lakh people have been excluded from the draft electoral roll published on August 1.' Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll body, said errors were bound to occur 'here and there'. 'This is a draft roll. It can be corrected by the Booth Level Officers,' he said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who led the petitioners' side, said, 'In a small constituency, 12 people left out as dead were found alive'. While Mr. Dwivedi said the petitioners were more keen to be an 'obstruction' and indulge in speculation, Justice Kant asked Mr. Sibal whether the petitioners wanted a 'roving inquiry', and at whose behest. 'If there are people genuinely aggrieved, please give a list of their names to us. We will take action,' Justice Kant addressed Mr. Sibal. Mr. Sibal said a larger part of the population of Bihar was poor and would have none of the documents sought by the ECI for verification of citizenship in order to be included in the electoral roll. Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, also for the petitioners, submitted that many records would have been lost due to floods, migration or other reasons. Most of the population of Bihar does not have their documents in a digital form, he said. 'Determination of citizenship is not the role of ECI. If crores of people in Bihar are already on the electoral roll, the poll body cannot ask them to produce documents to prove their citizenship again. This amounts to presumptive exclusion,' Mr. Singhvi argued. Mr. Sibal submitted that only 3.05% of people in Bihar had birth certificates, one of the 11 'indicative' documents required by the ECI. But Justice Kant dismissed the submission, saying, 'Bihar is a part of India. If people in Bihar do not have these documents, other States would also not have… These are documents which show a person is a bona fide resident of a State. Once you show the documents, the burden will shift on the ECI,' Justice Kant observed. The judge urged Mr. Sibal not to make 'sweeping statements'. Justice Kant further said 87% of Bihar had Aadhaar and Electors' Photo Identity Cards. They could be used as proof, though not conclusive, of citizenship. The court said those who were part of the Bihar electoral roll in 2003, when the previous intensive revision happened, need not produce documents to be included in the current draft roll. 'On a conservative estimate, 6.5 crore electors need not produce any documents as they are already in the 2003 electoral roll,' Mr. Dwivedi said. But Justice Kant did ask about the need for an SIR now when a summary revision of the Bihar electoral roll had happened in January 2025. Activist Yogendra Yadav, who appeared in person, said SIRs across the world have been found to be counter-productive. He said whenever the onus to be included in the electoral roll shifts from the state to the citizens, a quarter of the population, mostly the marginal and the poor, tend to get excluded. Mr. Yadav said the current SIR and the 2003 intensive revision of the Bihar voters' list could not be compared. The latter happened at a time when computers were introduced in the election process. 'Records were being computerised. Printouts were given out to officers who were asked to go from house to house to verify. The requirement to fill up enumeration forms and this presumption of exclusion now are unique... The Bihar SIR may be the largest disenfranchisement not only in the history of India, but of the world, in any democracy. This is not an issue of revision, but a tectonic shift in the burden to the voters,' he said. Advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted that the poll panel has the exact number of persons deleted from the draft roll and the reasons – death, traceability, duplication and permanent shift in the State – for their exclusion. However, it is not sharing the details. Many enumeration forms of deleted persons showed 'BLOs have not recommended' their names in the voters' list without giving any further reason, he said.
