CEC making things easier for BJP in Bihar, says Congress

The Congress on Thursday accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of making things easy for the BJP, while refusing to accept Aadhaar as a document of proof for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.

The party claimed that an exercise to revise voters’ list was already held from January to May this year. “The BJP found out that it cannot win elections in Bihar with public blessings. Thus, it resorted to ‘vote-bandi’ overnight in connivance with the CEC,” party’s Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru told the media at party’s 24 Akbar Road office in New Delhi.

Allavaru said, “Today, Aadhaar is considered the strongest document in the country. Despite the Supreme Court’s order, the poll panel is not ready to accept it. Why is Aadhaar not considered for the voters’ list in Bihar; but acceptable for other purposes like entry into Parliament or an airport and submitting the KYC form in banks.

“Not accepting it in Bihar means that the EC wants to make things easy for the BJP and difficult for the people. This voter is a list of the Chief Election Commissioner and the BJP, and not the people of Bihar. The CEC has discredited the dignity of the EC by its ‘Tughlaki’ order,” he added.

He also accused BJP leaders of filling voter forms of people themselves at several places.

Meanwhile, Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi also joined INDIA bloc’s protest on this issue in the Parliament House complex on Thursday.

Right from the start of the ongoing monsoon session, the Opposition MPs have been protesting against the revision exercise and demanding the rollback of the EC’s SIR move in Bihar.

The Opposition has also been demanding a discussion on this issue in both Houses. Ahead of the day’s proceedings, senior leaders of the Opposition -- including MPs of the Congress, DMK, TMC, Samajwadi Party, JMM, RJD and Left parties --assembled outside the Makar Dwar of Parliament and raised slogans against the government.

Protesting MPs included Congress’ Sonia Gandhi, general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and KC Venugopal; Samajwadi Party’s Ziaur Rahman Barq; TMC’s Kirti Azad; and DMK’s A Raja.