SC verdict on SIR: Cong questions validity of polls if deleted voters regain right to vote

New Delhi: Opposition leaders, particularly the Congress, on Wednesday targeted the BJP, alleging that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls had been misused for the benefit of one political party. Further, they questioned that if the deleted voters regain their right to vote after filing appeals, will the elections which have already been conducted, be still considered valid?

The response came after the Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) right and decision to undertake SIR of electoral rolls, holding that the revision exercise was within the constitutional and statutory powers of the poll body and was aimed at preserving the integrity of the electoral process.

While maintaining that the ECI has the right to conduct SIR, Congress MP Imran Masood cautioned that the process must not be misused.

“Form 7 has been misused. Many people’s names were deleted, Supreme Court asked (the tribunals) to decide on their appeals but before the appeals could be decided, elections took place,” he told IANS.

Form 7 can be used to object to the inclusion of another person’s or one’s own name on the electoral rolls on specific grounds such as death, duplication or shifting of residence. It can also be used to object to voters who are ineligible due to age, citizenship or misrepresentation.

Masood questioned that if the deleted voters regain their franchise following a decision on their appeals, will the election still remain valid?

Reacting to the Supreme Court’s verdict on SIR, he said: “How can free and fair elections be conducted if, for example, my vote is deleted before elections but I regain my right (in new draft rolls) post the elections?”

The Congress MP appealed to the apex court to take strict action if someone uses a fake Form 7.

Further, he said: “The Form 7 must be time-bound and its impact should not be felt on the electoral rolls.”

“Final draft rolls have been published in Uttar Pradesh, but we have information that Form 7 has been kept ready, which will be submitted just before the Assembly polls. Then how is democracy being upheld?” he claimed.

Targeting the ECI, NSUI incharge Kanhaiya Kumar asserted that when questions of faith are raised over any constitutional establishment in the country, it needs to be properly answered.

Congress MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling. However, he, too, alleged discrepancies in the SIR.

“I have repeatedly pointed out the discrepancies, including cases where people shown as dead in the voter list were later seen having tea with Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, and others,” he told IANS.

He asserted that such irregularities did exist, “though they may have been corrected later”.

MP Pappu Yadav asked the BJP-led Centre what the government will do with those whose names have been deleted from the voter lists.

“Will they be put in jails or sent to the country from where they allegedly came? Have those countries been identified? If those people are kept in jails, it would be a burden on the economy,” he told reporters.

Yadav accused the ECI of being the “enemy of democracy” and of deleting the names of the poor from electoral rolls in order to “benefit a particular political party”.

Echoing a similar view as Imran Masood, he said: “If a person regains his voting right after the election, will that election be then considered invalid?”

While maintaining that the Supreme Court gave its verdict in accordance with the concept and legality of SIR, he accused the BJP-led Central government of using the process for political benefit.

Chhattisgarh Congress President Deepak Baij referred to former West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee appearing in court to argue against the SIR process in Bengal.

“Irrespective of any clean chit, irregularities are happening in the SIR process,” he asserted.

IANS