'INDIA' Alliance Leaders Visit Election Commission, Protest Against Intensive Voter List Revision in Bihar

On the issue of the Special Intensive Revision of the voter list, leaders from 11 parties, including Congress, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other Election Commissioners, objecting to the special revision being conducted months before the Bihar Assembly elections.

After the meeting, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said that they also opposed a new Election Commission directive that allows only party presidents to meet the Commission.

Singhvi said, "For the first time, we were told rules for entering the Election Commission. For the first time, we were told that only party chiefs can visit the Commission. Such restrictions mean there cannot be the necessary dialogue between political parties and the Election Commission."

Reports said, some senior leaders had to wait for three hours. "We were told certain rules, and it was said that only two people from each party could enter, due to which many leaders could not attend the meeting, and we lodged our complaint about this",Singhvi said.

Singhvi said they raised several issues regarding the SIR process. He stated, "We asked, since the last revision in 2003, at least five elections have taken place in Bihar. Were all those elections flawed? If you needed to conduct an SIR, why was it announced at the end of June? How and why was this decision taken? Even if we assume an SIR is necessary, it could have been done calmly after the Bihar elections. When this process was adopted in 2003, there was a national election a year later and an assembly election two years later. This time, there is only one month left."

Singhvi noted that for the past decade, an Aadhaar card has been demanded for everything, but now it is being said that you will not be considered a voter if you do not have a birth certificate.