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The outreach comes against the backdrop of protests by the INDIA bloc, which has accused the EC of conducting the SIR exercise in a partisan manner
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar (PTI/File)
Amid protests by opposition parties against the Election Commission’s (EC) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, the poll body posed five key questions to citizens on Tuesday, seeking their responses to shape a clean and reliable voter list.
The outreach comes against the backdrop of protests by the INDIA bloc, which has accused the EC of conducting the SIR exercise in a partisan manner.
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In a veiled response to the opposition protest over SIR, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar asked five key questions to the citizens:
- Whether the voter roll should be thoroughly verified
- Whether names of deceased persons should be removed,
- Whether duplication of names across constituencies should be eliminated
- Whether individuals who have permanently relocated should be struck off
- Whether foreign nationals should be excluded
The move was seen as an effort to make every voter part of the conversation on electoral integrity.
Opposition Protest
During the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, along with several INDIA bloc MPs, were detained while marching to the EC office in Delhi.
The protests spilt into Parliament as opposition members alleged large-scale irregularities in Bihar’s draft voter rolls, citing cases like that of the “124-year-old” Minta Devi being listed as a first-time voter.
The stir, which began inside Parliament, spilled over to poll-bound Bihar, the focal point of the controversy, where the SIR exercise is underway ahead of the Assembly polls.
The controversy also reached the Supreme Court, where petitions challenging the timing and legality of the SIR exercise in Bihar were filed.
Petitioners argued that the EC’s move could distort the electoral process in a state heading for polls, while the Commission has defended the revision as part of its constitutional duty to maintain accurate voter rolls.
The bench sought a detailed response from the EC before the next hearing.
The EC has defended the SIR exercise as a necessary step to clean up inaccuracies in the rolls ahead of next year’s elections, with officials insisting it is “aimed at strengthening democracy, not undermining it.”
- Location :
Bihar, India, India
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