SIR exercise to be called 'vote chori' henceforth, Opposition leaders decide

New Delhi: The I.N.D.I.A bloc on Thursday decided to brand the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as “vote chori” (vote-theft) and equivalent in other Indian languages, as parties geared up to step the protest against the exercise inside and outside Parliament.

While Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will lead a protest in Bengaluru on electoral “malpractices” in Karnataka next Tuesday and in Bihar later in August where he will highlight “vote chori”, parties are exploring possibilities of a ‘gherao’ or ‘dharna’ outside Election Commission next week.

Rahul will also give a presentation on SIR to I.N.D.I.A. leaders at a dinner meeting in the middle of next week. A meeting of all I.N.D.I.A. MPs is also likely, sources said. Though AAP is now not part of I.N.D.I.A., sources said it may go ahead with its own protests.

With the government disinclined to allow a discussion on SIR, the Opposition parties said they would be left with no option but to intensify their protest, indicating that Parliament may be disrupted. The intensification of the protest comes as the election authorities in several states have started preparation for the SIR.

Opposition sources claimed the government had promised a Business Advisory Committee meeting to decide on the SIR debate to enable the start of discussion on Operation Sindoor but they have not kept the word so far.

Sources said the issue was discussed at a meeting of I.N.D.I.A. Parliamentary floor leaders on Thursday chaired by Kharge and attended by Rahul, Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien, CPI(M)’s K Radhakrishnan and John Brittas and CPI’s P Sandosh Kumar among others.

There was a consensus in the meeting that SIR should remain the top priority of the parties though at a separate meeting of Left parties, they felt the issue of the United States imposing 25 per cent tariff and penalty for buying military hardware and oil from Russia should also be raised.

However, sources said, there was an overwhelming view in the meeting that issues other than SIR were “distractions” and they should not give a leeway to the government on the issue. “The issue yesterday was SIR, today it is SIR and tomorrow it will remain SIR,” a senior opposition leader said.

As both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha continued to be disrupted for another day, sources said, the I.N.D.I.A. leaders said the nomenclature “SIR” may not communicate to people and it should be replaced by “vote chori”, something they claimed would be the inevitable outcome of the exercise.

Leaders have been asked to find equivalent of “vote chori” in their languages and use it during protests inside and outside Parliament. While the Opposition has managed to speak about SIR on record in Rajya Sabha, the MPs in Lok Sabha should also try to get the issue on record.

Sources said depending upon the government's decision on a debate on SIR, they will take a call on organising a protest outside the EC.

At an I.N.D.I.A. leaders meeting on July 19, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal and Forward Bloc General Secretary G Devarajan suggested some form of protest while Tejashwi demanded that there should be a march to the EC. Separately, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has demanded a gherao of the EC.