EC Rejects PK’s Charge On Deletion Of Names In SIR
The Election Commission refuted Prashant Kishor's claim that it colluded with the BJP-led NDA to delete poor voters' names in Bihar's electoral rolls.
The Election Commission on Thursday repudiated Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor’s charge that the poll panel, “in cahoots with ruling BJP-led NDA”, was deleting the names of poor voters during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Kishor, who is on a statewide tour to galvanise support in favour of his fledgling party ahead of the upcoming assembly polls, had made the statement at Begusarai on Wednesday.
The former poll strategist’s outbursts could be seen in the backdrop of the deletion of more than 65 lakh names in the draft electoral rolls released last week.
The EC has clarified that the deleted names were of those who have died (22.34 lakh), migrated to other places (36.28 lakh) or were enrolled at more than one place (7.01 lakh).
In a social media post, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Bihar shared the video clip of Kishor and attached its statement which read: “Let us collectively uphold the sanctity of the electoral roll and avoid premature or statistically unsupported conclusions that may weaken public faith in the democratic process”.
In the statement, the CEO urged all political parties and stakeholders to file claims and objections for any eligible voter whose name is missing or to raise objections against any ineligible person whose name is wrongly included in the roll.
Claims and objections can be filed until September 1.
In Begusarai, Kishor had alleged: “The Election Commission is in cahoots with the ruling BJP-led NDA. It is obvious that the poor, who work as migrant workers in far-off places, will vote against the ruling coalition in the assembly polls. So, there is an attempt to delete all such voters’ names from the electoral rolls.”.
He had also claimed that the Supreme Court has made it clear that all those who have Aadhaar cards must remain in the voters’ list..
"Also, the Election Commission needs to realise that it has no right to determine who is a citizen and who is not. In any case, even if names of five out of 100 voters are deleted, the remaining 95 per cent will be sufficient to inflict a crushing defeat on the NDA,” Kishor said.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
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