NEW DELHI: With over 65 lakh voters at risk of exclusion after the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, the INDIA bloc on Sunday demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) immediately halt the process, citing concerns over data integrity and procedural opacity.At a joint press conference in Patna, leaders from Congress, RJD, CPI(ML), and CPI(M) launched a strong attack on the poll body, accusing it of conducting the revision exercise based on ‘opacity’ and termed it ‘institutional arrogance’.They also disputed the ECI’s claim that lists of deceased and relocated voters had been shared with political parties.In a joint statement, the opposition bloc said, “Our apprehension is turning out to be true. We had warned that this drive would ultimately lead to the exclusion of nearly two crore people. The EC is basing voter deletions on flawed form-based data. The scrutiny is not over; more exclusions are likely in the coming month. We will go to the people on this issue. Even NDA allies are seeing their voters affected.”Speaking at the press meet Congress Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleged that the exercise lacks transparency and precision. “The entire exercise reeks of institutional arrogance. There are too many inconsistencies and no clarity. This is not a correction exercise; this is exclusion in the name of verification,” he said.
Source link
