Women voters.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Congress on Sunday claimed that the names of around 23 lakh women voters in 59 Assembly seats where a "close contest" took place five years ago were deleted from electoral rolls prepared after the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
It also wondered why the BJP and its women's wing are "silent" when a large number of women, particularly Dalit and Muslim women who "would not vote for BJP and NDA", are affected.
This raises "huge suspicion", while alleging that it is a "well-planned" conspiracy.
Addressing a press conference, Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba said the deleted women voters account for 6.28 per cent of 3.5 crore women electors and an analysis would show that deletions in massive scale happened in six districts.
She claimed in Gopalganj, names of 1.5 lakh women were deleted while in Saran, it was 2.24 lakh, Begusarai 1.15 lakh, Samastipur 2.18 lakh, Bhojpur 1.41 lakh and Purnia,1.9 lakh women.
Claiming that this deletion is "not accidental but a conspiracy", she said there are 59 seats where the highest number of voter deletions occurred and if one analyse 2020 Bihar elections, one will find that contests were very close.
The I.N.D.I.A bloc had won 25 seats while the NDA had won 34, she said.
"There is a clear gap between male and female voter deletions, highlighting how women have been specifically targeted. It is crucial to understand who are these women. Do they even know that their names have been removed?" Lamba asked.
"Under the pretext of SIR (Special Intensive Revision), a massive voter fraud is being carried out in Bihar and across India. This fraud is being orchestrated by the Chief Election Commissioner under the direction of the union government, the Prime Minister, and the Home Minister," she alleged.
In such a situation, she asked, "when these same women cast their votes in the Lok Sabha elections last year, were these votes still fraudulent? Did these fake votes elect MPs who formed the government? If so, then that Lok Sabha result must be annulled, and a fresh election should be held using the new list."
She said on one hand, the Prime Minister is depositing money into women's accounts to influence the Bihar elections but on the other hand, he, in collusion with the Election Commission, deleted the names of women.
Lamba demanded strict legal action against officials and agents involved in systematic voter suppression.