Bihar electoral roll revision: 'Be servile to democracy, not Shah and Shehanshah,' Congress tells EC

New Delhi: A day after their meeting with the Election Commission over Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, Opposition parties stepped up attack on the poll body with the Congress asking it to become a "slave" of the Constitution, democracy and voter and not that of "Shah and Shehanshah".

CPI(ML)L warned that it will launch an agitation against the "vote-bandi SIR" (disenfranchisement) as the concerns raised before the poll body "fell on deaf ears" while RJD said the two options before them at this point were to make people aware of the situation and look for legal remedies.

Addressing a press conference here, Congress Media and Publicity Department Chairman Pawan Khera said, "The way EC is being run poses a serious threat to democracy and not just against the Opposition. Everybody’s limits are defined by the Constitution."

"With all humility at my command, I warn the ECI that the governments come and go. Why are you being so servile to them? It would be better if you followed the Constitution...So many ‘Shahs’ and ‘Shahanshahs’ came and went away. Why should you be servile? You should be servile to the Constitution, democracy and voters and not the 'Shahs' and 'Shehanshahs".

Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram said claimed that the "clear intention" is to disenfranchise 20% or around two crores of Bihar voters. He said there will be practical difficulties in carrying out the SIR in just one month, as the government does not have adequate manpower to do that.

"The CEC himself said that the EC expects around 20% of voters in Bihar to be disenfranchised. It is the poor and marginalised people who will be most affected by this exercise, as they are unlikely to be able to furnish the required documents, particularly their own and their parents’ birth certificates," he alleged.

Congress Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru said the SIR was yet another “arbitrary decision” of the Modi government being imposed on people.

CPI(ML)L General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya asked why NDA parties like JD(U), Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) and LJP (RV) remained silent and urged them to join the resistance against the SIR.