SC order on electoral rolls leaves NDA, I.N.D.I.A. bloc at each other’s throats in Bihar

Patna: The ruling NDA and the opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc in Bihar were on Thursday left at each other’s throats in interpreting the Supreme Court’s order on a bunch of petitions challenging the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar, Voter ID and ration cards as valid documents during SIR in Bihar, set to go to polls later this year.

Calling SIR a "constitutional mandate", the top court also permitted the poll panel to continue with the exercise.

CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, a key opposition leader in the state who is also one of the petitioners, came out with a statement claiming “the Supreme Court order corroborates the basic fears and objections of the electorate”.

He hailed the apex court’s advice to the EC to include Aadhar, Voter ID cards and ration cards in the acceptable list of documents as being “in the interest of justice” and voicing “common demand of every voter on the ground”.

The SIR, ordered through a notification dated June 24 last, requires every voter to sign “enumeration forms” provided by respective booth-level officers. However, those whose names did not figure in the electoral rolls of 2003, when a similar exercise was conducted, would need to furnish additional proof of identity. Exclusion of Aadhar cards, ration cards and MNREGA job cards has been a major bone of contention.

Bhattacharya also urged the apex court to “take note of two other basic worries”, which include “no acknowledgement receipts upon submission of enumeration forms” and “risk of disenfranchisement faced by migrant workers” who may not be in a position to return from their places of work for filling up these forms.

The Left leader scoffed at the EC for “citing numbers to claim smooth and rapid progress of the drive”.

He also took exception to “enormous discretionary powers granted to Election Registration Officers for deciding on cases of forms without documents” and insisted that this would “pave the way for a whole lot of biased, arbitrary and inaccurate deletions and inclusions in the final roll”.

Incidentally, a common grouse of the opposition parties has been that the SIR, ordered with barely a few months left for the assembly polls, was aimed at “helping” the BJP-led NDA, which has been in power for two decades.

However, NDA partner JD(U), headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was of the view that the Supreme Court order was a “rap on the knuckles” for the opposition which had a day ago called a bandh in protest against SIR.

JD(U) national spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said, “Leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav had hit the streets yesterday in what looked like an attempt to put pressure on the apex court a day ahead of the hearing.

“However, the court order is a rap on the knuckles for these parties, which were questioning the authority of the Election Commission, even though its powers are well defined in the Constitution. The SIR has been getting an enthusiastic response. It is likely that the exercise would be complete before the next date of hearing on July 28,” added the JD(U) leader.

The EC has fixed a deadline of July 25 for submission of enumeration forms, after which a round of “claims/objections” would precede publishing of the final electoral rolls.

Those who are unable to submit documents by July 25 will be given another chance to do so during “claims/objections” phase, as per an advertisement published by the EC earlier this week, which was construed as a “backtracking” by the opposition, which met with a rebuttal from the poll panel.

Till date, the EC claims to have collected enumeration forms from about “5.22 crore (66.16 per cent of the total) voters”.