Opposition protests at Parliament over ‘124-yr-old’ voter in Bihar

Several Opposition MPs led by Wayanad lawmaker Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday wore T-shirts bearing “Minta Devi” and her picture on the front and “124 Not Out” on the back during a protest in the Parliament House complex against the Election Commission’s voter roll revision in Bihar.

Minta Devi is a voter registered in the Daraunda Assembly segment of Bihar’s Siwan district.

They claimed that Minta Devi was a “124-year-old first-time voter” whose name was found on the Bihar voters’ list and demanded a rollback of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in the poll-bound state.

Siwan district administration later clarified that the woman’s date of birth was filled up as July 15, 1900, in the enumeration form under the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar. As a result, her age was mentioned as 124 years in the draft electoral roll published on August 1. However, after the booth level officer (BLO) contacted Minta Devi, she rectified the error through an application dated August 10, and it will be fixed soon.

Reacting to the case, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi said there were unlimited cases like that. “Abhi picture baki hai (there is more to come),” he quipped, when asked about Minta Devi.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also said there were several such cases in which addresses and names of relatives, etc., were all fake.

Opposition MPs, including Rahul and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, have been holding protests against the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.

Calling it “vote chori”, they have alleged that the EC’s exercise was aimed at

“disenfranchising voters” in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections due later this year.

The EC officials, however, have defended the exercise, saying many “non-eligible persons” have been able to procure voter cards as the SIR was not held periodically since 2004. Also, “many persons” have, knowingly or unknowingly, managed to retain multiple voter cards of different constituencies, they have argued.