ECI abusing its powers, trying to change electoral character and patterns: Chidambaram

New Delhi: Senior Congress MP P Chidambaram on Sunday claimed that the Election Commission is “abusing its powers and trying to change the electoral character and patterns” of states and called for a political and legal fight against the move.

His comments came amid the protests against the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar is intensifying. He said the Bihar voter revision exercise is getting curiouser and curiouser.

"While 65 lakh voters are in danger of being disenfranchised in Bihar, reports of 'adding' 6.5 lakh persons as voters in Tamil Nadu is alarming and patently illegal. Calling them 'permanently migrated' is an insult to the migrant workers and a gross interference in the right of the electorate of Tamil Nadu to elect a government of its choice," he said on 'X'.

"Why should the migrant worker not return to Bihar or his or her home state to vote in the Assembly election, as they usually do," he said adding, "doesn't the migrant worker return to Bihar at the time of the Chhath puja festival."

A person to be enrolled as a voter must have a fixed and permanent legal home and the migrant worker has such a home in Bihar or another state and how can he or she be enrolled as a voter in Tamil Nadu, he asked.

"If the migrant worker's family has a permanent home in Bihar and lives in Bihar, how can the migrant worker be considered as 'permanently migrated' to Tamil Nadu? The ECI is abusing its powers and trying to change the electoral character and patterns of states. This abuse of powers must be fought politically and legally," he said.

In its response, the EC said there is "no need for political leaders to spread false information with respect to SIR exercise being conducted by the EC at national level".

Citing the Representation of the People Act, 1950 that stipulates that only an ordinary resident can be a voter in a constituency, the EC said, "A person originally belonging to Tamil Nadu but is ordinarily residing in Delhi is entitled to be registered as an elector in Delhi. Similarly, a person belonging to Bihar but is ordinarily residing in Chennai, is entitled to be registered as an elector in Chennai."

He said every Indian has a right to live and work in any state where he has a permanent home.

"How did the ECI come to the conclusion that several lakh persons, whose names are in the current electoral rolls of Bihar, must be excluded because they had permanently migrated out of the state? That is the question," he said.

"Before you reach the conclusion that a person has 'permanently migrated' out of a State, should not a thorough enquiry be conducted into each case? How could such an enquiry involving 37 lakh persons have been conducted in a period of 30 days? Mass disenfranchisement is a serious issue, and that is why the Supreme Court is hearing the petitions," he added.