Bihar electoral roll revision: Supreme Court's 'course correction' leaves everyone happy

Patna: The Supreme Court decision to allow the Election Commission to continue with its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in Bihar has left all the stakeholders – the EC, the Opposition, the NDA and the voters – happy, with hardly anyone showing genuine grievances any more.

Reason: The apex court's observation mollified all at a time when there was hue and cry about the genuine voters running the risk of being disenfranchised.

What the Election Commission had been reiterating in Bihar ever since it decided about SIR on June 24, it repeated the same in the apex court that the SIR was being carried out as per the constitutional mandate under Article 326 and the aim was to weed out the bogus voters from the 7.9 crore voters enrolled in Bihar.

Cleaning Augean Stables

The Supreme Court agreed and approved the EC’s move and did not stop the mammoth exercise in which around 98,000 BLOs are burning their midnight oil to verify the credentials of genuine voters, a task much needed to clean the Augean stables.

While the Election Commission was happy with the Supreme Court hearing, the Opposition felt elated that the Supreme Court made an oral observation asking the EC to rethink and include Aadhaar, PAN and ration cards as the documentary proof evidence to be submitted by the voter while filling the enumeration forms.

“We have been raising this issue to allow the voters to submit Aadhaar, or else, they run the risk of being disenfranchised. The SC has given a sound suggestion to the EC. We stand vindicated,” said Leader of the Opposition and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, adding that the EC should now hold a press conference and redress the misgivings in the minds of common voters.

The ruling NDA, however, felt that the SC observation had thwarted the Opposition effort to derail the SIR exercise. “My suggestion to the Opposition is that they should work hard for the people of Bihar to get votes, instead of spreading misinformation about the EC’s good intentions,” said BJP’s national spokesperson and former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

Voters happy

The voters in general, who were appalled over the EC’s insistence on not submitting the Aadhaar or PAN or ration card as the documentary proof, are breathing easy after the SC’s “course correction direction” to include even the EPIC (electors photo identity card) as one of the documentary proofs.

While the EC has said that it would give the voters a fair chance to carry out the correction/deletion of names once the draft roll is published in August, what has cooled down the frayed tempers of voters is the SC observation “the EC should facilitate democratic participation and not create obstacles” and that it will hear the entire matter again on July 28 (once the deadline for submitting the enumeration forms is over by July 25).