Former Lok Sabha Speaker and Congress leader Meira Kumar has said it is the solemn duty of the Election Commission of India to fulfil its responsibility of conducting free and fair elections across the country.
“Our Constitution has entrusted the responsibility of conducting elections to the Election Commission. Whether at the national or state level, it is their solemn duty to conduct fair elections and to do so in a manner that ensures the complete trust of the country’s people. The Constitution has given the Election Commission the responsibility to maintain this trust. I hope they will work towards this,” Meira Kumar told reporters while speaking on the Special Intensive Revision being carried out in Bihar.
The Election Commission of India is conducting a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the assembly elections in the state. The ongoing revision has triggered a political row, with the opposition INDIA bloc alleging that the exercise will result in the deletion of a significant number of voters.
Earlier on Saturday, Trinamool Congress MP Sushmita Dev hit out at the Union Government and the Election Commission over the revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar.
Dev termed the exercise a “match fixing” between the ECI and the BJP, accusing both of attempting to exclude voters rather than include them.
“This is an exercise done to exclude voters, not include them. When the revision occurs, it is intended to include more voters who have turned 18; however, people are being excluded within such a short period, in one month,” Sushmita Dev told ANI.
She further asserted that any electoral revision is meant to expand the voter list, especially as many young people reach voting age, but claimed that in Bihar the opposite is happening.
On 25 July, several opposition parliamentarians in the Rajya Sabha moved Suspension of Business notices, seeking a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision during the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament.
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