Bihar SIR Row: CPI(ML) Leader Dipankar Bhattacharya To Bring Allegedly Excluded Voters From 10 Seats For October 1 Public Hearing

Patna: Amid political uproar over alleged irregularities committed during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls, CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has announced  that his party would bring forward people from 10 assembly constituencies in Bihar who were deprived of their voting rights.

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Addressing a press conference, CPI (ML) general secretary, while seeking to counter chief minister Samrat Choudhary`s claim that the SIR exercise in the state was conducted without any irregularity, said that those people had been deprived of their voting rights who were alive and were also living in Bihar. He said that these people would be presented during a public hearing to be held by his party on October 1.  

“Our clear demand is that SIR should be stopped immediately and the elections held after the SIR should be conducted afresh. The process for appointing the Chief Election Commissioner should also be rectified,” he said.

Bhattacharya said the Opposition had been raising the issue of the Election Commission (EC) working in collusion with the BJP, and facts that have now emerged from within the poll panel itself have exposed this alleged nexus. He said the EC’s press conference on Saturday was in a way, an “admission of guilt”. He said the Election Commission acknowledged in its press release that the agenda for meetings would henceforth be circulated in advance.

Raising the issue of West Bengal, Bhattacharya said 16 lakh people there had earlier been considered eligible voters, but the EC later appealed before a tribunal seeking to declare them ineligible. “The EC has so far given no answer for this,” he said. He also questioned why people who were excluded from the electoral rolls due to alleged irregularities in the EC’s process should be required to fill Form 6.

“Enough is enough. Gyanesh Kumar will have to step down. EC cannot function under his leadership,” he remarked.  The authorities had earlier claimed that a “purified” electoral roll had been prepared through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), but were now saying that those left out would be added.