For Second Straight Day, Row Over Bihar Electoral Rolls In Parliament
The row over Bihar's voter list revision snowballed in parliament today as the government refused to answer the Opposition's queries, arguing that it is not competent to do so since the Election Commission is conducting the exercise, sources said.
The government said it cannot answer on behalf of the poll body and questioned how, in such a situation, can the issue of revision of voter list be discussed.
The Opposition, not ready to accept the argument, demanded an answer. For the second day in a row, the leaders continued their protest at Parliament's Makar Dwar, demanding that the revision exercise be halted.
The controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar and Operation Sindoor have been among the key issues on which the Opposition aimed to get a response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi during this session.
But while the government has agreed to a 16-hour debate on Operation Sindoor, it flatly refused to discuss the electoral roll revision today.
The poll body has claimed the voters are satisfied with the exercise and assured that there will be time to tweak the lists and include anyone who need to be included. The poll body has also claimed that the Special Intensive Revision or SIR is its constitutional duty. In court, where the matter is pending, it has argued that the entire process is being conducted in a consistent and jurisdictional manner.
The Opposition parties have contended that the revision is merely a ploy to pick and choose voters. And they have become more vocal after the Election Commission, with days to go before the draft Electoral Rolls, declared that 52 lakh names did not make it to list.
The Commission has said these names include those who have died, migrated or had names in two constituencies, the Opposition has refused to relent.
Today, Congress's Manoj Tiwari said, "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".
The party's senior leader Gaurav Gogoi said the Election Commission is "doing the work of (vote-bandi) banning votes in Bihar".
"It can only be done with the consent of PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. We want PM Modi to participate in the discussions of SIR, and he should inform us when the discussions on Operation Sindoor and SIR will take place," he said.
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