Election Commission holding regular dialogue with parties: CEC on criticism from opposition

Firozabad (UP): With opposition parties accusing the Election Commission of ignoring their concerns, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday asserted that the poll panel maintains a regular dialogue with political parties and 5,000 such meetings have been held in the past four months, beginning from the assembly level.

Replying to queries from reporters in Firozabad, where he came to attend a private programme, Kumar said that after voters, political parties are the next important stakeholders for the EC.

He was asked about the recent criticism from opposition parties, including their allegations that their concerns related to poll-bound Bihar are being overlooked by the EC.

"The Election Commission keeps having a regular dialogue with various political parties. In the last four months, all-party meetings were organised in every assembly constituency, in every district and also with every state chief electoral officer.

"In all, 5000 such meetings were held in which 28,000 people, including leaders of political parties, participated." The CEC said that not only this, the Election Commission itself has been meeting all national and state parties.

"Five national parties and four state parties have met. If there is any issue, then all-party delegations also come, and the EC meets them," he said.

The Chief Election Commissioner also said that in the electoral process, the voters are the most important, but after them, "our political parties are the most important stakeholders".

Referring to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, where assembly elections are due later this year, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said that whoever is in the voter list of 01.01.2003 in Bihar will be considered eligible from the primary point of view under Article 326 of the Constitution.

In other words, people whose names are in that list will not be required to submit any supporting documents, and when voter IDs are to be made for their children, they too will not be required to give documents for their parents.

The Election Commission has said it will soon upload the 2003 Bihar electoral roll on its website to facilitate the nearly 4.96 crore voters whose names figure on it to extract the relevant portion to be attached with the enumeration form for the special intensive revision of the voters' list.

According to the instructions issued by the poll authority to its Bihar poll machinery, the 4.96 crore voters -- 60 per cent of the total electors --- who were listed in the 2003 special intensive revision need not submit any supporting document to establish their date or place or birth except the relevant portion of the electoral roll brought out after the revision.

The other three crore -- nearly 40 per cent -- will have to provide one of the 11 listed documents to establish their place or date of birth.

"The basic exercise is to identify each and every individual of the remaining three crore voters before their names are included in the list," a functionary explained.

Special intensive revision will ensure that no eligible elector is left out of the electoral rolls and no ineligible one is part of it, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had earlier told PTI.

Bihar, as of now, has more than 7.89 crore voters spread across 243 assembly seats. Polls in the state are due later this year.